An Exploration of Potential Chemical and Biological Threat Agents

Abstract

Food and water provide an attractive and convenient target for intentional contamination. Food and water often follow complex production, and supply systems and the technical, physical and operational barriers are unbounded as compared to other types of potential targets. Globalization also plays a large role in making this target more appealing with the rapid and widespread distribution of food, and food ingredients from many locations providing potential for a greater dispersal of an agent. In short, there is potential for significant vulnerabilities all along the food and water continuum. Another factor that contributes to the attractiveness of food and water as a target for intentional contamination is the fact that often in the initial stages of a response to a foodborne illness outbreak related to food contamination; it could be very difficult to distinguish the intentional from the accidental. This potential lag in reaction time to the intentional contamination may facilitate an ongoing and wider spread of the agent in addition to providing the perpetrator with the opportunity for to elude capture.

The attributes that make food and water very attractive as a target can also make it a very challenging target. Much of the food that we eat is not a single component but often a blend of components. Each matrix is slightly different and each potential agent may react differently when exposed to the matrix. Due to the complex nature of food and food systems, the advancing technologies in genome sequencing etc. it is difficult to create a finite list of potential chemical and biological threat agents especially when discussing potential terrorism threats to food and water. In this presentation we will review some of the history of intentional contamination of food, and explore some of the characteristics of biological and chemical threat agents that would make them attractive for use as possible weapons against a given population.