The Office of Inspector General has slapped the
allowing an unauthorized scientist to send vials of the biological agent
anthrax — which leaked upon being opened — in a shipment from its Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in 2005.
The breach occurred when the UC-operated laboratory shipped
1,025 vials of bacillus anthracis — commonly referred to as anthrax — to a
branch of the Midwest Research Institute in
in September 2005. After unpacking the shipment, employees discovered that two
vials of the agent were uncapped, and one additional vial had a loose cap. A
drop of liquid was found on a technician’s glove, and the shipment was then repackaged
and moved to a storage facility, according to LLNL spokeswoman Lynda Seaver.
Seaver said that the technicians present were immediately
treated with Cipro — an antibiotic approved by the Food and Drug Administration
to combat inhaled anthrax — but showed no symptoms of anthrax poisoning.
“Less than a week later, they were back to work,” she said.
“There was never any danger to the public.”
The scientist who packed the vials later resigned from her
position.
Several layers of packaging would have made it difficult for
the substance to reach the technicians, Seaver said, but the laboratory could
not rule out the possibility that the substance on the glove was in fact
anthrax.
LLNL has been shipping biological agents fairly regularly
since the 1960s, but this is the first occurrence of an anthrax leak, Seaver
said.
The OIG also alleged that at the time of the breach, the
scientist who sent the vials lacked proper authorization to handle the agent.
Seaver acknowledged the mistake, but said it was a procedural error and not an
instance of any intentional misconduct.
“The individual had the necessary authorization, but it had
lapsed and had not been renewed,” she said. “It was a technicality.”
Seaver said that the fine is a result of two separate
incidents, the latter being a second shipment to Virginia — sent by the same
scientist — where an error in paperwork led to a shipment containing more
anthrax than it should have.
Although the fine is the largest of 11 assessed since 2003
for violating rules governing such biological agents, Seaver said that both
parties ultimately agreed on the final amount.
“We’re not disputing the fine,” she said.
She also said that the laboratory is currently undergoing
protocol changes to safeguard against future breaches.
“We’ve since instituted several procedures in training to
ensure that it won’t happen again,” she said. “We take our work with biological
agents very seriously.”
The Centers for Disease Control issued LLNL an unrestricted,
three-year renewal of its select agent registration in April 2006.
However, representatives from the Government Accountability
Office — the investigative branch of Congress — reported last week that the
federal government has not been adequately monitoring biocontainment
laboratories such as LLNL, raising questions about the safety of such
facilities.
The
of
managed LLNL from its inception in 1952 until September 2007. The lab is
currently run by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, of which the
university is a member.
