NEWS
By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun | October 7, 2011
A panel of independent scientists has found flaws in the Army's planning to shield workers and the public from harm from a proposed biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick. The seven-member committee assembled by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the risk assessment being done by an Army contractor is "not sufficiently robust" to help design a facility that will reduce potential hazards. The $584 million, 492,000-square-foot Medical Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Facility would develop and test vaccines and drugs to prevent or treat infectious diseases.
NEWS
By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun | August 16, 2010
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin is calling for a rapid investigation and expanded cleanup at Fort Detrick in Frederick amid fresh questions over the testing and storage of the notorious herbicide blend Agent Orange there decades ago. Cardin wants the Army and the Environmental Protection Agency to reach an agreement by December that would allow more federal money and expertise to come to the base, where dangerous chemicals were maintained for years and...
NEWS
By ANN LoLORDO | April 3, 1994
Today, the Army's infectious disease research institute in Frederick is still using soldiers to test new vaccines for malaria, hepatitis, dengue fever and other exotic diseases.But the human testing program is subject to greater review than its predecessor of 20 years ago.Since 1975, when the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick revived its human testing program, there have been about 120 medical research projects with a need for an estimated 2,520 volunteers, according to Carol Linden, director of research plans and programs at the agency, known by its acronym, "USAMRIID."
HEALTH
By Matthew Hay Brown, The Baltimore Sun | October 3, 2011
Neighbors of Fort Detrick were not diagnosed with cancer in greater numbers than the broader population of Frederick County during the period for which data are available, state health officials told the community Monday. But local activists said the state's analysis does not capture the history of cancer around the Army base because it does not take into account cases before 1992, when the state began compiling its cancer registry. Clifford Mitchell of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said cases recorded in the Maryland Cancer Registry from 1992-2008 within two miles of Fort Detrick showed no statistically significant increase in any type of cancer as compared to the rest of the county.
NEWS
By Douglas Birch and Douglas Birch,Sun Staff Writer | June 11, 1995
FREDERICK -- Behind sea-green cinder block walls and stainless steel doors, protected by space suits and sterilizing chemical showers, scientists here are searching for weapons to fight one of Earth's most dangerous predators.This is Fort Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, one of only five laboratories in the world equipped for the study of such super-lethal, untreatable diseases as Marburg, Lassa and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever.But recent books, a movie and a deadly epidemic in Africa have focused an international spotlight on USAMRIID's work on one murderous microbe in particular: the Ebola virus.
NEWS
May 28, 1995
Army officials have begun monitoring wells at more than 30 homes near Fort Detrick in Frederick, looking for traces of a dye that will determine the flow of ground water from the post.The study is part of a $3.3 million investigation of chemical contamination at the 1,200-acre facility and elsewhere. Army officials initially believed a trench, where acids, solvents and chemicals were buried decades ago, was the source of pollution. However, various tests have been inconclusive.By injecting dyes in Area B, the site of the trench, the Army hopes to determine ground water flow patterns in limestone bedrock beneath that section of the post in northwest Frederick.