Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/759309
33 Winter 2016 Most Americans and European adults are familiar with the anthrax letters that were sent through the U.S. Postal System shortly after the attacks of 11 September 2001. The investigation into those letters was code-named . More than 25 full-time investigators from multiple agencies logged hundreds of thousands of hours during Amerithrax. The investigation resulted in the suicide of a person of in- terest who worked for the U.S. Army and was about to be charged in connection with the incidents. 1 It also led to the development of new techniques that allowed the scientists to determine the strain of anthrax and to pinpoint the ex- act laboratory from which the anthrax had been cultivated. 2 This arguably represented the birth of microbial forensics and is most definitely the commencement of its use as a tool in biological terrorism investigations. Humans die with more than 45 times as many genes as they had when they were born. This is due to the accumu- lation of microscopic organisms over the normal course of human development and life. Most of these microscopic or- ganisms are transmissible, and the makeup of this portion of additional life varies to a degree from person to person. 3 Giv- en that this microbial community varies from one individual to another, we can assume that the microbial community is able to, or will at some point be able to, be individualized. Additionally, given that most of this microbial community is transmissible, we can assume, based on Locard's exchange principle, that some of this entity will be transferred when- ever contact is made with another surface. Think about your family tree: Your cousins, many times removed, who live in Europe and whom you have never met, can be definitively identified as your genetic relatives even though your genetic connection dates back dozens of gen- erations. This same principle can be applied to the micro- organisms that are living as a part of you. When a person touches a surface, a portion of that microbial community is transferred to that surface. The microbial sample continues to grow and change because being biological, by definition, means being alive. The "microbial aura" that surrounds each individual is always growing and changing; however, follow- ing the same principles that connect you to your European cousins, the transferred microbial sample can be connected to the microbial sample currently living in the individual who transferred it—and it can be matched through genetics as a microbial fingerprint. To illustrate the uniqueness of the microbial aura, one research paper, "Microbial Foren- sics: The Biggest Thing Since DNA?" notes that "the palm surface of any two individuals share only 13 [percent] of the same bacterial phylotypes." 4 During the Amerithrax investigation, it became clear that simply knowing which biological substance was used was not going to be enough to discover the source of the ma- terial or the perpetrators of the attacks. Therefore, forensic analysis was applied in such a way that the needed informa- tion could be gleaned. The BioSciences Division, Research and Technology Directorate, Edgewood Chemical Biologi- cal Center, Edgewood, Maryland, determined that "In the emerging subfield of microbial forensics, these principles [acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of evidence] are now being applied to the analysis of microbial materials, including potential and actual biocrime agents." 5 The iden- tification of the biological agent required a deeper exami- nation into the exact strain that was used; more specificity was required. As stated by the codirector, Center for the Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism, microbial foren- sics provides "much greater detail to determine the precise strain and substrain." 6 Using a greater level of detail, the source of the anthrax was eventually traced to a vat at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseas- es laboratory and a person of interest was identified. 7 This biological terrorism event is probably the most well-known to Americans today, but was far from the first or only bio- logical terrorism event. The Centers for Disease Control defines a bioterrorism attack as "the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, ani- mals, or plants." 8 However, different agencies use different definitions and for the purpose of this article, that definition is augmented by specifying that the goal of the deliberate re- lease is to push an agenda by instilling fear or terror into the population. Biological "weaponry" has been in use (though not widely accepted) in one form or another since the 14th century. Aum Shinrikyo, a terrorist organization most commonly known for its sarin nerve agent attack in Japan, had an an- thrax program and was very interested in more thorough- ly pursuing biological weapons. 9 Terrorist organizations around the world would like to develop a biological weapon capability. Biological attacks can go undetected until symp- toms start to manifest in multiple individuals, likely causing panic and fear throughout the population and affecting ev- erything from the amount of time the average person spends outside their home to national commerce. In responding to a biological terrorism event, the level of preparedness depends on where the event occurs and how far it spreads. Different regions and different countries have different capabilities, funding, resources, and interest in preparing for a biological terrorism event. A 2015 study that took place in Colorado, published by Homeland Security and Emergency Management, cited many difficulties that local assets may face in a biological terrorism event; two of these difficulties seemed to be due to lack of familiarity. The study