WORLD OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)71•
One of the “attractive” aspects of anthrax as a weapon
of biological warfare is its ability to be dispersed over the
enemy by air. Other biological weapons also have this
capacity. The dangers of an airborne release of bioweapons
are well documented. British open-air testing of anthrax
weapons in 1941 on Gruinard Island in Scotland rendered
the island inhabitable for five decades. The US Army con-
ducted a study in 1951-52 called “Operation Sea Spray” to
study wind currents that might carry biological weapons. As
part of the project design, balloons were filled with Serratia
marcescens(then thought to be harmless) and exploded over
San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, there was a corresponding
dramatic increase in reported pneumoniaand urinary tract
infections. And, in 1979, an accidental release of anthrax
spores, a gram at most and only for several minutes,
occurred at a bioweapons facility near the Russian city of
Sverdlovsk. At least 77 people were sickened and 66 died.
All the affected were some 4 kilometers downwind of the
facility. Sheep and cattle up to 50 kilometers downwind
became ill.
The first diplomatic effort to limit biological warfare
was the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War
of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of
Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. This treaty, ratified in
1925, prohibited the use of biological weapons. The treaty
has not been effective. For example, during the “Cold War”
between the United States and the then Soviet Union in the
1950s and 1960s, the United States constructed research
facilities to develop antisera, vaccines, and equipment for
protection against a possible biological attack. As well, the
use of microorganisms as offensive weapons was actively
investigated.
Since then, other initiatives to ban the use of biological
warfare and to destroy the stockpiles of biological weapons
have been attempted. For example, in 1972 more than 100
countries, including the United States, signed the Convention
on the Prohibition of the Development Production, and the
Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin
Weapons and on Their Destruction. Although the United
States formally stopped biological weapons research in 1969
(by executive order of then President Richard M. Nixon), the
Soviet Union carried on biological weapons research until its
demise. Despite the international prohibitions, the existence of
biological weapons remains dangerous reality.See alsoAnthrax, terrorist use of as a biological weapon;
Bacteria and bacterial infection; Bioterrorism, protective
measures; Bioterrorism; Infection and resistance; Viruses and
response to viral infectionBIOLOGICALWEAPONSCONVENTION
(BWC)Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)
The Biological Weapons Convention (more properly but less
widely known as The Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention) is an international agreement that prohibits thedevelopment and stockpiling of biological weapons. The lan-
guage of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)
describes biological weapons as “repugnant to the conscience
of mankind.” Formulated in 1972, the treaty has been signed
(as of June 2002) by more than 159 countries; 141 countries
have formally ratified the BWC.
The BWC broadly prohibits the development of
pathogens—disease-causing microorganismssuch as viruses
and bacteria—and biological toxins that do not have estab-
lished prophylactic merit (i.e., no ability to serve a protective
immunological role), beneficial industrial use, or use in med-
ical treatment.
The United States renounced the first-use of biological
weapons and restricted future weapons research programs to
issues concerning defensive responses (e.g., immunization,
detection, etc.), by executive order in 1969.
Although the BWC disarmament provisions stipulated
that biological weapons stockpiles were to have been
destroyed by 1975, most Western intelligence agencies
openly question whether all stockpiles have been destroyed.
Despite the fact that it was a signatory party to the 1972
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the former Soviet
Union maintained a well-funded and high-intensity biological
weapons program throughout the 1970s and 1980s, producing
and stockpiling biological weapons including anthraxand
smallpoxagents. US intelligence agencies openly raise doubt
as to whether successor Russian biological weapons pro-
grams have been completely dismantled. In June 2002, traces
of biological and chemical weapon agents were found in
Uzbekistan on a military base used by U.S. troops fighting in
Afghanistan. Early analysis dates and attributes the source of
the contamination to former Soviet Union or successor
Russian biological and chemical weapons programs that uti-
lized the base.
As of 2002, intelligence estimates compiled from vari-
ous agencies provide indications that more than two dozen
countries are actively involved in the development of biologi-
cal weapons. The US Office of Technology Assessment and
the United States Department of State have identified a list of
potential enemy states developing biological weapons. Such
potentially hostile nations include Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria,
North Korea, and China.
The BWC prohibits the offensive weaponization of bio-
logical agents (e.g., anthrax spores). The BWC also prohibits
the transformationof biological agents with established legit-
imate and sanctioned purposes into agents of a nature and
quality that could be used to effectively induce illness or
death. In addition to offensive weaponization of microorgan-
isms or toxins, prohibited research procedures include con-
centrating a strain of bacterium or virus, altering the size of
aggregations of potentially harmful biologic agents (e.g.,
refining anthrax spore sizes to spore sizes small enough to be
effectively and widely carried in air currents), producing
strains capable of withstanding normally adverse environmen-
tal conditions (e.g., disbursement weapons blast), and the
manipulation of a number of other factors that make biologic
agents effective weapons.womi_B 5/6/03 1:09 PM Page 71