U.S. UNPREPARED FOR LARGE-SCALE BIOTERRORIST ATTACK, SAYS UGA TOXICOLOGY EXPERT
Bioterrorism Research Response Center to train medical, veterinary, law and environmental health workers in case of major disaster
ATHENS, Ga. - "Aware but not ready" is how Cham Dallas, Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Toxicology at the University of Georgia and Civilian National Consultant to the Surgeon General for Weapons of Mass Destruction described U.S. preparedness for a large scale biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack.
"The public is not very well informed about the consequences of nuclear, chemical or biological war," says Dallas. "but the government is aware of the danger and is beginning to vigorously prepare for it." Although the U.S. expects a disaster, Dallas says the local and federal authorities needed to respond "would not be prepared" if the death toll in one city reached into the thousands overnight as a result of a terrorist attack.
Dallas, along with a team of scientists and military experts from the Medical College of Georgia and other academic institutions, the military, the Department of Justice, and the Public Health Service, have a $9.5 million dollar proposal before Congress to develop a Center for Leadership in Education and Applied Research in Mass Destruction Defense. The Center will simulate real-life, large-scale disasters to train doctors, nurses, pharmacists, veterinary specialists, toxicologists, information specialists and others what to do in case of a disaster.
"We know there are terrorist groups and even individuals with the capability to do a lot of damage in the U.S.," said Dallas. "We need to be prepared to deal with mass casualties and other consequences of a major attack. Professionals must be ready to respond to a disaster of this magnitude. It has happened elsewhere in the world."
To help prepare for a large-scale nuclear accident or attack, Dallas has been studying the long-term effects of radioactive fallout at Chernobyl over the last decade. He and fellow researchers regularly work at the site of the world's largest and most widespread radionuclide release in history and have found surprising results.
A distinct lack of toxicological effects has been shown in animals gathered within the 30 kilometer "exclusion zone" despite the fact that they registered the highest levels of radioactivity ever published among free-living organisms, said Dallas. He attributes the high radioactivity level in the animals "simply because they did not leave like the humans did.
"We have found some alterations in the DNA and oxidative stress enzymes in some animal species and thyroid cancer in humans increased several thousand percent, but there are no three-headed babies or Godzilla monsters. The birthrate in the area has decreased, but it is not due to radiation. It's due to fear."
Dallas believes it is necessary to learn as much as possible from large-scale disasters like Chernobyl. "The increasing likelihood of the use of a terrorist nuclear, chemical or biological weapon," he says, "means that it is really not a question of if, but when it is going to happen in America and will we be prepared?"
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