Researchers report in a recent issue of the “Journal of the American Medical Association” that two incidents of deliberate food contamination emphasis how vulnerable Americans are to attack by terrorists armed with microbes. In 1984, 751 people in The Dalles, Ore., were sickened when members of commune led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh poured cultures of salmonella on salad bar items and into coffee creamers in an attempt to influence an upcoming election by making voters too sick to go to the polls. In October 1996, someone contaminated pastries left in a break room at St. Paul Medical Center in Dallas with Shigella dysenteriae type 2, which sickened a dozen lab workers.
From the Daily Regulatory Reporter
