United States
   Environmental Protection
   Agency
                                           600F06005
Assessing the Risk from
Biological Threats:  A  Government/
Academia  Partnership for
Homeland  Security
     The results of this
     research will arm
     policymakers and
     first responders
         with the
     information they
      need to protect
       lives and set
     decontamination
          goals.
 Reliable risk assessments are necessary for government agencies
 and emergency response personnel to quickly evaluate and
 communicate real and potential risks for high-priority natural or
 man-made microbiological threats.

 Background

 In 2005, EPA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established
 a jointly-funded Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA)
 at Michigan State University—in partnership with six other universities—to
 enhance the conduct of risk assessments needed to support homeland
 security objectives. The Center is a consortium of leading academic
 scientists with extensive expertise in microbial risk assessment methods
 and infectious disease transmission through environmental exposures.
 CAMRA is addressing research to fill critical data gaps in credible risk
 assessments for decontamination of microbiological threats. The research
 being conducted is developing creative methods to assess the risk of
 exposure to pathogens in air, water, soil, and on hard surfaces in both
 indoor and outdoor environments.
Why is This Research
Important?

Shortly after the September 11,
2001, attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, letters
containing anthrax bacteria were
mailed to the news media and
two U.S. Senators. Five of the
22 people infected with anthrax
died. Three post offices were
contaminated from processing the
letters, two of which did not reopen
until late in 2003 and the third not until March 2005.
Decontamination of the Brentwood, MD, post office
cost approximately $130 million, and the Hamilton,
NJ, post office decontamination cost approximately
$65 million. EPA also spent approximately $42
million to decontaminate the government buildings
in Washington, DC. Because limited data existed
about B. anthracis and decontamination procedures,
EPA used general industrial hygiene concepts and
an experienced-based public health approach. The
                  procedures available at the time were hampered
                  due to the lack of sufficiently sensitive detection
                  equipment for dangerous biological agents. This
                  incident changed the perception of both the
                  likelihood of a biological attack and of its potential
                  consequences. It also demonstrated the gaps in
                  the understanding of how microbes behave when
                  they are used as weapons. The better the fate of
                  pathogens in human environments is understood, the
                  better the abilities to counteract bioterrorism will be.

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v>EPA
    United States
    Environmental Protection
    Agency

    U.S. EPA Office of Research
     and Development
    Washington, DC 20460
    EPA/600/F-06/005
    February 2006
What is the Research?

The new Center has two primary goals:
•  A technical mission to develop models,
   tools, and information to be used to
   reduce or eliminate health impacts from
   the deliberate indoor or outdoor use of
   biological agents of concern; and
•  A practical mission to develop a
   national network for information transfer
   about microbial risk assessment
   among universities, professionals, and
   communities.

Major issues CAMRA is addressing include:
•  The degree to which the standard methods
   currently used in chemical risk assessments
   can apply to pathogens;
•  The extent to which the methods and models
   that have been developed for food-borne
   and/or waterborne pathogens can be used
   to assess homeland security risk;
•  Improved methods and models for bridging
   key gaps in dose response information; and
•  An examination of the need for specific risk
   assessment methods for certain pathogens.
Anticipated Outcomes

The results of this research will give government
agencies and first responders improved
knowledge and tools to rapidly identify and
ascertain the consequences of exposure to
dangerous microbial agents. This research
will also identify potential health effects from
exposure to  both deliberate and accidental
releases of biological agents.
                 Contacts
UNIVERSITY
Joan Rose               \/iir>i_iir- A M c-r\-rc
CAMRA Center Director    MICHIL.AN MAI t
Michigan State University   UNIVERSITY
rosejo@msu.edu
Charles N. Haas
CAMRA Center Co-Director
Drexel University
haas@drexel.edu

Angela D. Page
U.S. EPA
Office of Research and
Development
page.angelad @ epa.gov

Matthew Clark
U.S. Department of Homeland
Security
matthew.clarkl @ dhs.gov
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        ,$•

         Affiliated Organizations
        Carnegie Mellon.
        NORTHERN ARIZONA
     9 UNIVERSITY
              1THE UNIVERSITY
                OF ARIZONA.
           Arizona's First University.
  University of California Berkeley.
        UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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