CDC to Review Inspections Rules for Labs

ILC Dover technician William Ayrey is seen in a self-contained biosuit in Frederica, Del., Monday Oct. 1, 2007. Suits made by ILC Dover, and other manufacturers, are worn in the highest security level laboratories that work with dangerous germs and toxins. Suits such as these protect workers from organisms and poisons so dangerous that illnesses they cause have no cure. (AP Photo/Gary Emeigh) (Gary Emeigh - AP)

"I assume the CDC didn't do that level of inquiry," Davis said.

"They could have asked us."

The Texas A&M lab has been suspended by the CDC from working with the most dangerous organisms. Davis promised that all problems eventually found by regulators would be fixed before the lab applied to resume the research.

"This is not the type of role model we would like to be," he said, referring to past violations.

Congressional investigators, also testifying at the House hearing, said that unregulated laboratories are experimenting with potentially deadly germs _ increasing public risk in a system that relies on self-reporting of accidents.

Operators of the labs are the only people who know whether a few known cover-ups of accidents "are the tip of the iceberg or the iceberg itself," said Keith Rhodes, a Government Accountability Office expert on lab research.

No government agency knows the total number of unregulated labs or tries to keep track of them, the GAO official said.

The number of labs is expanding, in large part because of an increased counterterrorism effort to develop vaccines and treatments for biological agents that could be used in an attack.

Yet, even the FBI and intelligence agencies are unable to keep track of the proliferating labs, Rhodes said. Only the 409 labs working with at least one of 72 germs and toxins _ designated by the government as "select agents" _ are registered and must report accidents.

Beyond those labs there is "an informational black hole," Rhodes said.

More labs mean "more people who possibly could be compromised ... and the more material you have to move," Rhodes testified.

"The fact that there is so much unknown at the moment, I would have to say there is a greater risk" to the public, he added.

The Associated Press reported this week that American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing as more labs do the work.

No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.

Lab accidents, ranging from skin cuts to animal bites, result mostly from "human error due to carelessness, inadequate training or poor judgment," Rhodes said.