OTO CO DOSTANIECIE W PREZENCIE OD ZYDA KWASNIEWSKI

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OTO CO DOSTANIECIE W PREZENCIE OD ZYDA KWASNIEWSKIEGO
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Warning on food terrorism issued:
U.N. health agency says attack could be devastating.

GENEVA, Jan. 31 The World Health Organization warned on Friday
that terrorists could try to contaminate food with chemical,
biological or radioactive agents and urged states to tighten
their defenses. It said such an attack could result in people
dying, being paralyzed or contracting illnesses such as cancer.

Deliberate release of a chemical, biological or radionuclear
agent could potentially cause severe harm and pose a huge burden
on public health systems.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

THE U.N. agency called on its 192 member governments and on
industry to boost surveillance and emergency response measures
to minimize the risk.
In a report, �Terrorist Threats to Food: Guidance for
Establishing and Strengthening Prevention and Response Systems,�
WHO said that developing countries with poor food safety
controls were the most vulnerable to attack.
According to the Geneva-based agency, some 1.5 million
people, mainly children, already die each year due to
diarrhea-related diseases caught from eating contaminated food.
There were only relatively few known cases of deliberate
contamination, but they should serve as a warning, it said.

Threats from terrorists, criminals and other anti-social
groups who target the safety of the food supply are already a
reality, WHO said, adding it had received no specific threats
of any such attack.
Deliberate release of a chemical, biological or
radionuclear agent could potentially cause severe harm and pose
a huge burden on public health systems,� it added.
Biological agents are pathogens including viruses,
bacteria and parasites, while deadly chemical agents can range
from pesticides to cyanide. Radionuclear agents include uranium.

ACUTE EFFECTS� POSSIBLE
The agents used could have acute effects, resulting in
death, paralysis or vomiting or long-term consequences such as
fetal abnormalities and increased rates of chronic illness such
as cancer, WHO warned.
The report listed several cases of intentional food
attacks, including a 1984 salmonella outbreak caused by a
religious cult in Oregon whose members contaminated restaurant
salad bars, making more than 750 people ill.
The attack had appeared to be a trial run for a more
extensive assault by the cult, which also possessed strains of
typhoid fever, according to the agency.

Good disease reporting systems and laboratory facilities
are important to quickly analyze outbreaks, according to Dr
Jurgen Schlundt, WHO director of food safety.
�If you move earlier on in the food production chain and
if you try to use deliberate contamination, you can reach a
higher proportion of the population, he told a news briefing.
Natural outbreaks show the potential dangers of foodborne
disease. In 1994, 224,000 people in 41 U.S. states were infected
with salmonella due to contaminated ice cream.

But the largest incident was probably an outbreak of
hepatitis A which struck nearly 300,000 people in Shanghai,
China, in 1991 after they had eaten clams, it said.
If an unintentional outbreak from one food, such as
clams, can affect 300,000 individuals, a concerted, deliberate
attack could be devastating, especially if a more dangerous
chemical, biological or radionuclear agent was used, the report
said.