ANTHRAX: A cluster of anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis) in the lung PHOTO RESEARCHERS, CAMR/A BARRY DOWSET
In mid-September 2001, as the dust was still settling at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, several news media offices and two US Senators received letters containing spores of the lethal bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Five people died, and 17 others were infected.
“The anthrax attack of 2001 was unprecedented in US history,” the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist. “It was the first use of biological weapons on US soil in modern history.”
The cleanup following these attacks was similarly unprecedented, the agency noted. “[The] EPA had decades of experience conducting emergency responses to hazardous materials and oil spills, but had never responded to a biological weapon such as the preparation used in this attack.” After conferring with the Defense ...
