Biothreats Articles
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Developing a New Generation
SteraMist Systems to Meet Any Disinfection and Decontamination Need TOMI continues to develop and expand the SteraMist product line to include new generations of the original mobile products with the goal of designing and creating new products to adhere to current and new industries. As the relationship with ARM EnerTech Associates, LLC (ARM) is ...
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Respiratory protective equipment for wildland fires
A.L: What are the occupational risks that wildland firefighters are exposed to? S.P: Wildland firefighters have the same risks as a welder, because they are exposed to heavy metals, the same risks as a coroner, because they work with organic materials, perhaps with dead animals; They face the same dangers as a lumberjack from exposure to formaldehyde, or as a melter when it comes to heat stress. ...
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Abatement of organic pollutants using fly ash based adsorbents
The presence of organic pollutants in the environment is of major concern because of their toxicity, bio-accumulating tendency, threat to human life and the environment. It is a well-known fact that, these pollutants can damage nerves, liver, and bones and could also block functional groups of essential enzymes. Conventional methods for removing dissolved pollutants include chemical ...
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A user–layered approach for modelling and simulating terrorist attacks
Modelling and simulation techniques offer a comprehensive method for assessing the impact of a terrorist attack, allowing multiple scenarios to be simulated with ease without imposing extensive time or cost constraints. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive model for the different categories of users who are likely to be involved in the modelling and simulation of a terrorist ...
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Protection of nature and biological diversity in Turkey
This paper focuses on the Turkish legislation regarding protection of nature and biological diversity. As it is known, biological resources are vital for the humanity's survival and for the economic and social development of nations. However, biological diversity is under threat around the world. Nevertheless issues regarding food, clean water, healthy environment, production and consumption are ...
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Electrochemical inactivation of
Bacillus spores in drinking water using a quaternary oxide electrodeBacillus spores are resistant to disinfection methods and they represent a potential threat that requires improved methods to ensure water safety. Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) and B. anthracis Sterne (BA) spores were used to investigate the effectiveness of the electrochemical (EC) disinfection process. We tested the quaternary metal oxide (TiO2–Sb2O5–SnO2–RuO2) as the anode material in an EC cell ...
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Water infrastructure security against Al Qaeda`s revenge for the death of Bin Laden
On May 2, 2011, the United States (U.S.) President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. forces killed Osama Bin Laden, the world's most dangerous terrorist leader that killed approximately 3000 Americans on September 11, 2011 (9/11) terror attacks. Currently, the U.S. intelligence is in possession of valuable materials of Al Qaeda operations (Thomas, 2011). Terrorist attack plots include water ...
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Terrorism, biosecurity and endogenous risk
Bioterrorism and infectious disease are biosecurity threats that can be modelled as biological invasions (e.g. alien species), incorporating the concept of endogenous risk from the environmental economics literature, i.e. that human behaviour may alter, deliberately or unintentionally, the likelihood and severity of these threats. Application of this modelling approach to investment strategy in ...
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Biosecurity, international trade and invasive species: improving US capacity to assess risk
Well-informed policy decisions are based upon high-quality data. In September 2005, the US Environmental Protection Agency engaged the International Union for Conservation of Nature to evaluate opportunities for routine evaluation of the linkages between the US market access agreements and invasive species. This study, led by the authors of this article, assessed the ability of US commodity ...
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The future of biosecurity
The future of biosecurity will be determined by international scientific and political responses to the rapid worldwide expansion of genetic engineering technologies in infectious disease research, and by implementation of cooperative global surveillance and public health response policies to control the emergence of new strains of natural disease organisms. Effective responses will depend on a ...
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Pathogen security: the illusion of security in foreign policy and biodefence
'Pathogen security' (sometimes called 'biosecurity') is too often seen as the primary strategy to combat bioterrorism. Asserting that materials, technologies and expertise for bioterrorism are available worldwide and that terrorist groups are increasingly able to obtain and disseminate infectious disease pathogens, advocates contend that pathogen security systems and practices are central to ...
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The meaning and practice of biosecurity
This special issue demonstrates the breadth and range of topics subsumed under the term biosecurity. It also makes apparent that this diversity of topics is a challenge for developing a coherent view and approach to biosecurity. Though my initial desire was to provide a measure of coherency to this topic and to this special issue, I increasingly came to question whether an overall unified view of ...
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Enhancing biosecurity through early recognition and reporting of public health risks: meeting the challenges of the revised international health regulations
The revised international health regulations recognise the importance of shortening the time from a disease outbreak to its detection and notification to the international public health community so that effective responses that enhance global biosecurity can be taken. The new international health regulations aim at requiring countries to issue alerts early enough so that responses can be ...
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Risk assessment and management of animal disease-related biosecurity
Animal agriculture is vulnerable to both intentional and unintentional biological threats. Outbreaks, especially intentional attacks, could cause enormous consequences extending well beyond agriculture. Nations, including the USA, are consolidating and coordinating efforts to protect against these biological threats. The efforts employed largely fall into the categories of ex ante ...
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Material control and accountability for laboratory biosecurity
Laboratory biosecurity refers to a suite of measures to protect legitimate stocks of dangerous pathogens and toxins from being acquired by individuals with malicious intent. Intentional misuse presents a different problem than accidental misuse, which is the subject of laboratory biosafety. In particular, the material control and accountability (MC&A) component of laboratory biosecurity addresses ...
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Biosecurity from the ecologist's perspective: developing a more comprehensive approach
National planning for biological security should encompass more than just protection against biological weapons. Global forces such as the introduction and spread of invasive species (including emerging infectious diseases), in conjunction with population growth, climate change and sea-level rise, also constitute threats to security. These linked biological and abiotic phenomena make the United ...
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Societal stability, public health and primary care as three pillars of defence in biosecurity
Infectious diseases have threatened humanity since the beginning of time, causing more death and illness than all wars of mankind combined. This historical review describes some outbreaks and endemic diseases and examines risk factors and individual, organisational and governmental responses. History teaches us that the most effective responses to mitigating biological disaster require ...
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Strategies to improve the communication of probability information in risk analyses
Difficulties in interpreting probabilities can impede the progress of risk analyses and impair the communication of risk information to stakeholders. This review examines how people have problems in interpreting probability information, leading to several strategies for improved understanding. The inconsistent translation of probability terms to numerical expressions, and the biases that ...
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