Stanley Falkow, a respected researcher at Stanford University in California, in his letter to the former attorney-general of the United States revealed that, 'Trying to meet the unwarranted burden of what the government considers 'bio-safety' is simply not coincident with the practice of sound, creative scientific research'. The government introduced a policy which highlighted the need for tight control over the biologists 'with access to dangerous pathogens', in this regard Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act was promulgated, which imposed severe regulations on 'select agents, a list of 82 viruses, bacteria and toxins', which can be possibly used as bio-weapons (Jenny, 2004).
However, the American government has been successful in the identification of the 'agents responsible for many significant diseases that affect people, livestock or plants, including foot and mouth disease and the BSE prion that causes mad cow disease, even botulinum toxin is on the list, though the medical version, botox, is exempt from the regulations' (Jenny, 2004).
The American government has been able to evolve such policy in which it has tried to identify and shortlist the names of the relevant biologists who have interface with such chemical agents, the government has introduced a regulation as per which the biologists and relevant staff professionals have to register with the government, and have to submit their 'finger prints on record, get security clearances, and have their labs inspected, extensive controls have been placed on the movement of microbes and researchers, and all samples of select agents must be strictly accounted for or destroyed' (Jacqueline, 2006).
Previously there was a defined procedure for the transportation of the particular microbes, but after the implementation of the regulation the non-compliance of the regulation has been regarded as a crime. The scientific community of the country has appreciated such regulations aimed at tighter control over the chemicals and its utilization. The President of American Society of Microbiology has appreciated such regulations, and has vowed to follow it in spirit, 'common sense as well as government regulations dictate that the days of carrying vials of dangerous pathogens in our pockets are gone, as are those of leaving cultures of anthrax in open laboratories, as scientists we must honor a pact with the public to protect public health and defend against bioterrorism'. The organization along with leading journals such as Nature and Science has 'announced a voluntary self-censorship code that required crucial details that could be exploited by bioterrorists to be removed from scientific papers'. However the regulations have been condemned and opposed by certain departments, mainly because they are against the implementation of the procedural requirements, 'the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta must now give permission to work with human pathogens, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture manages livestock diseases, this ought to allow diseases such as anthrax that affect both people and animals to be dealt with by either agency' (Jenny, 2004). The critics have complained that on instances the researchers do not have any access to the paper work even after the clearance is granted.
The rules have been considered as worst and inconsistent by some of the critics, a part of the regulation has stated that 'the regulations states that clinical labs that grow new cultures of select agents must destroy them within seven days', however on different instances it has been revealed that the labs have to secure permission prior to the destruction of cultures, which usually takes more than seven days. Therefore the scientists have been of the opinion that the compliance is impossible, 'every single lab involved in select agents has violated the regulations somehow; the investigation can penetrate and can observe the scientists of compliance whenever it chooses, the implications for government control of what scientists can do or say is, in the words of one, McCarthy-esque; even when the rules are clear, complying with them can be prohibitively expensive'. It was observed that in one of the state university, the university had to hire more than five full-time police, and has to appoint an extra secretary for three moderately sized labs. The state universities which do not have sufficient budget...
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