Fort Detrick

Frederick residents have had plenty of reminders lately why they should be concerned about the biodefense facilities in their midst: an ongoing cancer cluster investigation related to past groundwater contamination, an Agent Orange protest, and headlines about the 2001 anthrax attacks — which the FBI still insists were perpetrated by a researcher at Fort Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Little wonder, then, if Frederick residents are troubled about the latest risky biodefense facility at Fort Detrick: a 460,000-square-foot Medical Countermeasures and Test Facility, which, it appears, will aerosolize large numbers of monkeys with bioweapons agents.

An independent panel of scientists says two government-issued studies can't show if people were harmed by toxic pollution from Fort Detrick contaminating the ground water, but further studies are unlikely to answer lingering questions about the health impacts of the cancer-causing chemicals buried decades ago at the Frederick military base. In a review sponsored by the Army, a committee of environmental and health experts with the National Research Council took issue with a study by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which concluded that tainted ground water seeping out from Detrick's Area B was "unlikely to have produced any harmful health effects, including cancer.

An independent panel of scientists says two government-issued studies can't show if people were harmed by toxic pollution from Fort Detrick contaminating the ground water, but further studies are unlikely to answer lingering questions about the health impacts of the cancer-causing chemicals buried decades ago at the Frederick military base. In a review sponsored by the Army, a committee of environmental and health experts with the National Research Council took issue with a study by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which concluded that tainted ground water seeping out from Detrick's Area B was "unlikely to have produced any harmful health effects, including cancer.

Randy White had just buried a daughter, dead at 30 with a brain tumor. Now his other daughter had been diagnosed with growths in her abdomen. When doctors told White in 2009 that their conditions were likely caused by something in their environment, the Frederick native thought of Fort Detrick. His children had grown up near the Army base. Detrick was home to the nation's biological weapons program from the 1940s through the 1960s. It remains a key center for medical research.

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.

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...

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Frederick residents have had plenty of reminders lately why they should be concerned about the biodefense facilities in their midst: an ongoing cancer cluster investigation related to past groundwater contamination, an Agent Orange protest, and headlines about the 2001 anthrax attacks — which the FBI still insists were perpetrated by a researcher at Fort Detrick's U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Little wonder, then, if Frederick residents are troubled about the latest risky biodefense facility at Fort Detrick: a 460,000-square-foot Medical Countermeasures and Test Facility, which, it appears, will aerosolize large numbers of monkeys with bioweapons agents.

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...

Military officials are opening a new center for Army and Marine reservists in Frederick. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was set for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Armed Forces Reserve Center at Fort Detrick. The $15 million facility replaces a building dating to 1958 and had become too cramped. The new building has triple the space. -The Frederick News-Post

A measure requiring further federal investigation into the 2001 anthrax attack that killed five people was approved Thursday by the House of Representatives. It was proposed by two skeptics of a recently closed FBI probe that blamed the deadly attacks on Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army biodefense lab at Fort Detrick in Frederick. Maryland Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, who represents Frederick, and Democratic Rep. Rush Holt, from the New Jersey district where the anthrax letters were mailed, want the director of National Intelligence to investigate potential foreign connections to the attacks.

FREDERICK -- The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $3.3 million contract to a Pennsylvania firm to further investigate chemical contamination at Fort Detrick and to find the best way to clean it up.The yearlong project by E.R.M., an Exeter, Pa., environmental consulting firm, will include installation of monitoring wells at varying depths to determine water quality, said Norm Covert, a base spokesman.In addition, the firm will obtain soil samples at varying depths for analysis. Testing will be conducted at sites on the 800-acre Area A, which houses the main post, and Area B, a 400-acre tract off Shookstown Road, and on residential wells outside the facility.

BERLIN -- Once at the center of the Cold War's last great propaganda battle, Jakob Segal now sits in his cramped high-rise, pondering why no one believes his theory that the AIDS epidemic was made in Maryland."

Shuttle named Charm City Circulator The free downtown shuttle bus system that debuts this summer is to be called the "Charm City Circulator," Mayor Sheila Dixon announced Wednesday. The name was submitted by 24-year-old Cherry Hill resident Michelle C. Brand and selected from about 2,700 entries by a committee that included the Downtown Partnership, neighborhood representatives and city employees. Brand will receive about $1,000 in prizes. Paid for by a recent increase in parking taxes, the circulator will include 21 clean-energy buses and three routes.