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Acting Quickly Saves Lives
Protecting People Against Biological Attacks
Preparations for attacks with biological weapons like anthrax and smallpox are not new at all,
but the terrorist attacks of 2001 have sped things up considerably.
The strange object on the right is the surface of a cell being infected by the
smallpox virus. Virus particles land on the cell, are taken up and duplicate.
The duplicates are then released and make us ill. The object on the left is what anthrax more
or less looks like in the human body.
The bacterium that causes the disease called anthrax develops very rapidly and can be deadly.
However, early detection makes all the difference. That is the idea behind the BioWatch Program,
which uses special equipment to monitor the air for certain pathogens.
Herb Dempsey from our Durham office in North Carolina explains: "When someone is exposed to
anthrax and you start treatment immediately – ideally before the first symptoms show – you can
treat it successfully. The same applies to the smallpox virus. Acting quickly saves lives."
DETECTING DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES
With the BioWatch equipment, we are able to detect traces of pathogens. To find out if it works
correctly, we are currently installing test stations at locations in major urban areas in America.
Herb adds: "Our team, fifteen people strong, provides operational support to ensure that
monitoring goals are met on a daily basis. And while the program develops, we try to expand our
involvement." The final plan is to have enough monitoring stations to provide protection
for at least eighty percent of the U.S. population. And most likely, these systems are to become
available to other nations as well.
The white box next to the clock is one of the BioWatch instruments. It checks the air for
the presence of approximately twenty pathogens, including anthrax and smallpox.
Photograph courtesy Rupprecht and Patashnick Co., Inc., the developer and supplier of the
equipment and a partner in the project.
Herb Dempsey: "Within a Canadian-American consortium, we are also looking at enhancing
the systems with new sensor technology. We want to apply optical technology similar to what is,
for instance, used to monitor air pollution from large pig farms. That would enable real-time
monitoring, which would save a lot of time in case of an emergency."
I wrote the above article for ARCADIS Elements, in which it was published in December 2003.
Angelina Souren
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