Accountability, tracability, GMPs…
Just a few months ago, New York’s Attorney General tried to impose on dietary supplement manufacturers a new DNA test to allegedly trace the identity of the botanicals used for dietary supplements(1). All the experts in the industry agreed that the DNA test was appropriate to test whole botanicals, but not extracts – as not all botanical extracts contain DNA, and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) legally required under FDA standards allowed for other validated testing methods, such as HPLC and HPTLC.
In the meantime, the press lashed out at the dietary supplement industry as a whole, citing lack of policies, traceability, calling for a complete overhaul, etc…
Now we are learning from Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work that the Pentagon may have unintentionally shipped live anthrax samples to 51 labs in 17 states and the District of Columbia, as well as Canada, South Korea and Australia(2). Obviously, the scope of the problem suggests extensive flaws in procedures used to ensure that anthrax samples were made fully inert before shipping them to labs. We are pleased to learn that the admission prompted the US Defense Department to order a thorough review(3).
It is about time: the letters carrying powdered anthrax mailed to members of Congress and the media, which killed five people and infected 17 others shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, were linked by the FBI to a scientist at an Army lab in Maryland(4).
And the Canadian government confirmed this week that it received a sample from the Defense Department in 2006 that could have contained live anthrax, according to Reuters(5).
It is probable that if a private company was shipping anthrax, it would immediately be prosecuted for criminal activity and shut down. But when it comes to the Army, a policy review is ordered at the Third public blunder! I wonder what would happen if only NY’s Attorney General had jurisdiction over the Pentagon…
(1) www.ahpa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=507
(2)http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/politics/pentagon-51-labs-in-17-states-with-questionable-anthrax/index.html
(3)http://www.independent.ie/world-news/us-anthrax-blunder-scandal-widens-31265711.html
(4)http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-pentagon-anthrax-20150603-story.html
(5)http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/anthrax-scandal-us-defence-department-sent-anthrax-sample-to-canadian-government-10295034.html