Army Lab Finds 9,200 Uncounted Vials

Army Lab Finds 9,200 Uncounted Vials

www.military.com

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - An inventory of deadly germs and toxins at an Army biodefense lab in Frederick found more than 9,200 vials of material that was unaccounted for in laboratory records, Fort Detrick officials said Wednesday.

The 13 percent overage mainly reflects stocks left behind in freezers by researchers who retired or left Fort Detrick since the biological warfare defense program was established there in 1943, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, deputy commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

He said the found material included Korean War-era serum sampl

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Well it would seem all is well that ends well. A few months pack this story caused quite a stir when it was disclosed that over a hundred pathogens were missing at the Ft. Dietrich testing facility in Maryland.

Of course it was just described as dozens of different pathogens when they lost it but as 9,200 plus vials when they found them.

The current story is when various scientists and researchers retire there work just get’s left at the back of some freezer somewhere and everyone forgets about it.

Must be pretty important these life long career scientists work on for the government that the day they retire people forget about it!


www.military.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Now after all these month’s the real number (is it the real number?) of 9,200 vials of deadly pathogens were missing and unaccounted for which seems like quite a few in my humble opinion.

After criminal investigators poured over the books and the facility they are now claiming only 3 are missing and were likely used up in poorly documented research.

Let’s hope since it’s a Brazilian strain of equine encephalitis which of course had nothing to do with all the dead Polo Ponies in Palm Beach Florida shortly after the vials went missing.

Investigators are claiming that they themselves have destroyed over half the 9,200 hundred found vials as evidently they were no longer pathogens the government had any interest in further research on, but the remaining undestroyed vials are?

Typical government accounting! Whether it’s deadly pathogens or dollars are government at all levels and branches seems to not just have an accounting, but accountability problem.

Interesting...but how do you overlook 9,200 vials of toxic material? How convenient.

Is there not a chain of custody that gets signed off on for this stuff? At the very least, people should lose their jobs over this.

[edit on 18/6/2009 by kosmicjack]

I have a close friend who works in this facility. The vials are accounted for on a weekly basis. These 9200 were the ones from 1963 that were put into one of their centrigues at 72 below zero, then warmed up to destroy them. They were bubonic plague; for the most part.

It is interesting that this facility keeps such good records. The Fed inspectors are the ones misinterpreting the inner paperwork.

I will not dare jeopardize my friend's integrity and I value our friendship above and beyond any disclosures.

Peace...

Originally posted by kosmicjack
Interesting...but how do you overlook 9,200 vials of toxic material?

How convenient.

Is there not a chain of custody that gets signed off on for this stuff? At the very least, people should lose their jobs over this.

[edit on 18/6/2009 by kosmicjack]

Those are excellent questions and the article says it was the base commander and not higher ups that ordered the criminal probe.

The article claims that since they implemented accounting procedures in 2005 nothing worked on or created since 2005 has gone missing but all the items involved were from before 2005.

They are also stating that because the vials are so small, (less than one ounce containers) that they are easy to overlook and misidentify in the 345 some odd freezers in use at the institute.

The article suggests and hints at that now retired scientists basically worked in vacuums were no one but they themselves paid much attention to what they were working on or why.

Sounds like our government at work to me!

It was the suicide of the scientist at the facility who admitted to being the source of the weaponized anthrax that was used in the letter campaign following 9-11 of letters various people and institutions were receiving in the mail with Anthrax in them.

Which of course predates the 2005 inventory procedures but clearly the original inventory they took in 2005 left out some 9,200 plus vials and that's not considering evidently the anthrax used by the mad scientist in his letter campaign.

What a country!

Thanks for posting and the question.

Originally posted by Gyrochiral
I have a close friend who works in this facility. The vials are accounted for on a weekly basis. These 9200 were the ones from 1963 that were put into one of their centrigues at 72 below zero, then warmed up to destroy them. They were bubonic plague; for the most part.

It is interesting that this facility keeps such good records. The Fed inspectors are the ones misinterpreting the inner paperwork.

I will not dare jeopardize my friend's integrity and I value our friendship above and beyond any disclosures.

Peace...

I am sure for the most part they take the work they do their pretty seriously.

It is interesting to note that cases of Bubonic plague have just been reported in Libya!

Though in today's world there are plenty of rats who could have caused that outside of Ft. Deidrich.

One thing is for certain as was displayed with the letter writing campaign by the now deceased scientist who worked there and was sending Anthrax out in the U.S. Mail that at least in 2001 and 2002 it was possible for someone employed at the facility and working with pathogens to make some of them dissapear.

I once read a great crime novel that was a purely fictional work but one of the strategies employed by the criminal underlord looking to corner the world's heroine market was to use a pathogen he obtained from a Ft. Deidrich scientist who had a gambling problem and was deep in debt to his bookie they extorted to give the criminal cartel a deadly pathogen.

The plan was to release it in the golden triangles food supply and have it work it's way through the area that way. The main criminal/hero/gangster doing all the dirty work forgot to pack it in his luggage though and it ended up over looked in his freezer!

Thanks for posting and sharing what you know from your friend.

This makes me feel incredibly safe NOT. It's always nice that they seem to find what they lose or misplace but the fact it's lost or misplaced at all worries me. Maybe they could also find a plan that actually keeps this country from becoming the newest third world superstar.

Seems and looks to me, like our education ssytem hee has totay, and un deniably flunked...perticualry, in mathematics!

Originally posted by kosmicjack
Interesting...but how do you overlook 9,200 vials of toxic material?

How convenient.

[edit on 18/6/2009 by kosmicjack]

Well it sort of happens. In my lab which is a BL2 lab (compared to the lab in the story which is probably at least BL3 maybe BL4 level) we have tons of unlabeled random vials in our -80 freezer. Makes for a nightmare when the freezer needs to be moved or dethawed.

Stuff like this happens. People throw things in freezers and forget about them.

Originally posted by Beach Bum
This makes me feel incredibly safe NOT. It's always nice that they seem to find what they lose or misplace but the fact it's lost or misplaced at all worries me. Maybe they could also find a plan that actually keeps this country from becoming the newest third world superstar.

It's amazing the environment these people create to work in, poor oversight, poor accountability, one had often doesn't know what the other is doing.

Something tells me the government could do a better job of wiping us out 'accidentally' than deliberately!

Thanks for posting.

Originally posted by ziggy1706
Seems and looks to me, like our education ssytem hee has totay, and un deniably flunked...perticualry, in mathematics!

Well along with various alternative lifestyles comes alternative mathematics, 2 + 2 can equal 3 or 5 if you just complain loud enough, long enough and to enough of the right people!

Originally posted by testrat

Originally posted by kosmicjack
Interesting...but how do you overlook 9,200 vials of toxic material?

How convenient.

[edit on 18/6/2009 by kosmicjack]

Well it sort of happens. In my lab which is a BL2 lab (compared to the lab in the story which is probably at least BL3 maybe BL4 level) we have tons of unlabeled random vials in our -80 freezer. Makes for a nightmare when the freezer needs to be moved or dethawed.

Stuff like this happens. People throw things in freezers and forget about them.

I don't know I can give you a full accounting of every last popcycle in mine including how many are cherry, grape, lime and banana!

One would hope that people who have a passion for this type of work don't look at it as 'just another day at the office', but recognize the deadly nature of the substances that they work with and are accountable for and treat that accordingly.

Exactly. I label everything in my freezer and it's just food. I would hope that people dealing with deadly diseases in a bottle would have the common sense to label them.

If you're working on a strain of something and it's time for everyone to clock out for the day, if everyone just tosses their sample bottle into the freezer unlabeled, how do you know which bottle you were working on when you come back to work the next day?

I'm just a nurse but we don't even open a bottle of already labeled insulin without dating, timing and initialing it. I'm sure the scientists working in these kinds of labs have better training and stricter guidelines than nurses.

It's not unusual for a lab tech when preparing samples to be tested to make up to five so that should any test or use be compromised, the same sample can be reused for a follow up test to compare results. Not destroying them after or mislabeling is not something unusual unfortunately!

Zindo

The material was in tiny, 1mm vials that could easily be overlooked in the 25-cubic-foot freezers or even covered by clumps of minus-80-degree ice, said Sam Edwin, the institute's inventory control officer.

See it was the ice's fault, no human error involved at all!

What a relief!

Originally posted by whitewave
Exactly. I label everything in my freezer and it's just food. I would hope that people dealing with deadly diseases in a bottle would have the common sense to label them.

If you're working on a strain of something and it's time for everyone to clock out for the day, if everyone just tosses their sample bottle into the freezer unlabeled, how do you know which bottle you were working on when you come back to work the next day?

I'm just a nurse but we don't even open a bottle of already labeled insulin without dating, timing and initialing it. I'm sure the scientists working in these kinds of labs have better training and stricter guidelines than nurses.

It doesn't seem like it's always the case that these scientists have stricter guidelines than nurses.

I would wage many a Doctor owes still being in practice and not having sky liability insurance rates because of nurses who have saved their butts on clerical and administrative mistakes.

I have an older sibling who works in science, brilliant mind for the technichal, confounded when it comes to tying his shoes and looking both ways before crossing the street.

Academic brilliance very often does not translate to or equate common sense!

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
It's not unusual for a lab tech when preparing samples to be tested to make up to five so that should any test or use be compromised, the same sample can be reused for a follow up test to compare results. Not destroying them after or mislabeling is not something unusual unfortunately!

Zindo

I am sure it's a very tedious job that requires a lot of precision and patience in some areas.

It is problematic though considering how small these vials are and how potentially deadly they are if someone smuggles them out through lax accounting procedures.

Logistics can be daunting in any profession but they still have to be overcome. One of the dangers with government work and grant type work is you don't have to turn a profit and always be trifled with succesfully managing the logistics of your operation for maximum effeciency and safety.

Very valid observations Zindo but so are the concerns and the needs being addressed I think?

Thanks for posting.

Originally posted by whitewave
I'm just a nurse but we don't even open a bottle of already labeled insulin without dating, timing and initialing it. I'm sure the scientists working in these kinds of labs have better training and stricter guidelines than nurses.

Training and strict guidelines mean nothing when confronted with bureaucratic incompetence.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Well, living very close to Plum Island, one of the original infamous places of viral research, I can say that keeping records and making sure stocks are accounted for are paramount to most who research the problem!


Zindo