ABSTRACT
Introduction In 1984 and 1985, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated a September 1984 foodborne outbreak in a small Oregon town along the Columbia River, The Dalles. Investigators found that Salmonella typhimurium, a common foodborne pathogen, was responsible for causing 751 cases of illness, and that people who got sick appeared to have contracted it at multiple restaurant salad bars. During the course of the investigation, state and federal epidemiologists rejected a theory that the outbreak resulted from intentional contamination.1 Indeed, an official CDC report noted that they knew of only one previous instance of intentional food contamination. In that earlier case, a Canadian graduate student put pig ringworm, Ascaris suum, into the food of his roommates, causing four to get sick.2 The perceived rarity of intentionally caused disease led public health investigators to reject a view widely held by locals that the outbreak was a deliberate act by a cult, the Rajneeshees. The Rajneeshee cult, which originated in India but relocated to Oregon in the early 1980s, had a confrontational relationship with the local community. As it happened, the public health investigators were wrong, both about the cause of The Dalles outbreak and the incidence of illicit crimes involving biological agents. While crimes involving the illicit use of biological agents were rare, they occurred with considerably more frequency than understood by the CDC. Indeed, a 2001 study found at least eight criminal cases involving the intentional contamination of food with a biological agent between 1906 and 1970.3 The actual incidence is unknown, since it is not known how many such events went undetected. Ultimately, law enforcement authorities proved that the outbreak was the result of intentional contamination. The S. typhimurium was deliberately introduced into restaurant food, especially at salad bars. Members of the cult admitted that the outbreak was a trial run for a follow-on attack intended to prevent the citizens of The Dalles from voting in the upcoming November county election.4 The events in The Dalles received little attention at the time outside of Oregon. As a result, it is not surprising that many government officials were
unaware that illicit use of biological agents was real and not science fiction. This lack of awareness began to change after the end of the Cold War. During the early 1990s, considerable evidence surfaced about the biological weapons programs of the former Soviet Union, Iraq, and South Africa. In 1995, Japanese authorities discovered that Aum Shinrikyo, the religious cult that released sarin in the Tokyo subway, had tried unsuccessfully to disseminate biological agents on multiple occasions from 1990 to 1993. In the late 1990s, the leadership of al Qaeda openly discussed their desire to obtain biological weapons capabilities. After 9/11 the United States captured documents and discovered facilities in Afghanistan proving that al Qaeda had the beginnings of a biological weapons program intended to weaponize anthrax as a biological weapon. This chapter will focus primarily on the illicit use of biological agents by nonstate actors. For context, some background information on biological warfare also will be provided. Biological warfare (biowarfare) is any form of warfare between military forces involving the use of infectious agents or toxins (poisons created by plants, animals, or microorganisms). This is in contrast to biological terrorism (bioterrorism) and biological crimes (biocrimes), which involve non-state groups. Bioterrorism is the use of such agents by non-state groups for ideological, religious, or political reasons. Finally, biocrimes are illegal actions taken for financial gain, revenge, or other personal motivations using infectious agents and toxins. Our objective is to provide some understanding of the long history of the illicit use of biological agents and toxins. Unfortunately, there are significant gaps in our accounts of this history. Many incidents involving the use of such agents have received scant notice by historians. Equally important, many incidents are poorly documented. For example, histories recounting such attacks in the distant past often were written long after the event – sometimes centuries later. Only rarely are eyewitness accounts available. As a result, few accounts prior to the eighteenth century can be considered wholly reliable, and even many more recent allegations must be treated with some caution. Biological agents are infectious entities that can reproduce in their host and refers to pathogenic microorganisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, and fungi) as well as infectious proteins (such as prions). This includes such well-known pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis (the organisms responsible for anthrax and plague, respectively). In contrast, toxins are poisons obtained from plants, animals, or microorganisms, such as botulinum toxin and ricin. While certain animals, such as poisonous snakes or pest insects, are sometimes treated as biological agents, they are not considered in this chapter.5 For convenience, the terms biowarfare, bioterrorism, biocrimes, and biological weapons are used in connection with activities that can involve either biological agents (infective entities) or toxins.
