Anthrax+as+a+Bioweapon

= Bio terrorism and Anthrax = Anthrax is a durable and lethal disease. When left in a hostile environment, spores can still last for up to four decades before decomposing and when contracted via inhalation, Anthrax is almost 100% fatal. For these reasons, various governments and organizations have looked at Bacillus Anthracis as a viable choice for biological warfare.

= World War I = =  = The first documented use of Anthrax as a weapon occurred in World War I when Finnish freedom fighters contaminated a base of the invading Russian Imperial Army. Results are unknown and the attempt was most likely ineffective.

= World War II = =  = During the Second World War Britain conducted a series of experiments known as "Operation Vegetation", an attempt by the British war government to use Anthrax to destroy Nazi livestock. This plan entailed the dropping of numerous cattle cakes laced with Anthrax onto German farms. A total of five infected cattle cakes were made to be dropped by the Royal Air Force. Gruinard Island, a piece of land in Scotland which was used for the experiments was severely contaminated in the process and was only declared safe to inhabit nearly forty years later.

The British were also developing a weapon known as the N-Bomb, this weapon again made use of Anthrax and was intended to spread the disease through populous German city centers.

However, both of these projects were scrapped by the British and the cattle cakes were incinerated in 1945.

= Sverdlosk Incident = =  = Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was also cultivating its own Anthrax spores in numerous military complexes across the nation. One such complex, located in the city of Sverdlosk, experienced an accidental release of anthrax on Soviet citizens on April 2, 1979. The death toll eventually reached over 100, including all of the workers in a nearby ceramic plant. It was revealed that a super-fine Anthrax dust was released through an air vent which was having its filters replaced. This incident, known as the "Biological Chernobyl" after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, revealed serious violations of the Biological Weapons Convention on the Soviet Union's part.

= 2001 Anthrax Attacks = =  = The latest documented use of man-made anthrax as a weapon were the 2001 Anthrax Attacks. On September 18,2001 an unknown suspect mailed the first of seven letters laced with anthrax. Targets included two Democratic Senators and numerous TV news networks. The letters themselves contained some Anthrax dust along with a short, threatening message. Over the course of the attacks, 22 were infected, 11 seriously so, and 5 died of their infections. The Federal Bureau of Investigations conducted several investigations into the incident and concluded that the attacker was Bruce Edward Ivins, a scientist of the United States Medical Research Intstitute of Infectious Diseases. These attacks garnered huge media attention mostly due to their close proximity to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. These attacks are also what made Anthrax widely known to the general public  Below is a video of Paul Kotula and Joe Michael of Sandia National Laboratories and a discussion of their work in the FBI anthrax letters investigation. media type="youtube" key="YHJNZUiyLGo" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJNZUiyLGo&eurl=http://saspdhealth.wikispaces.com/Anthrax+as+a+Bioweapon Forward: Anthrax Current Research and Statistics Backward: Anthrax History Anthrax Home