Accidents and employee negligence at Iowa research laboratories have caused unnecessary biological risks or potentially exposed workers to bovine tuberculosis, pathogens and other dangerous viruses, according to records obtained by The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY.
The
occurrences — mostly documented over the past three years in federal
incident reports — are among hundreds of laboratory mistakes that were
uncovered across the nation during a six-month investigation by Gannett
newspapers.
UNAPPROVED STUDIES:
Research on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus — better known
as MERS —was conducted for about five months in 2013 and 2014 prior to
being approved by the bio-safety committee at the University of Iowa.
MERS is a respiratory illness first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It
kills about 30 percent of people who contract it. The incident "was the
result of negligence" of Stanley Perlman, a UI microbiology professor
who headed the project, the report says.
ACCIDENTS:
A postmortem examination on a cow with bovine tuberculosis resulted in
an employee accidentally stabbed in the knee with a knife used in a
September 2014 exam at the USDA's National Animal Disease Center in
Ames. In another incident, a University of Iowa graduate student in
January 2012 cut his finger after breaking a glass tube containing
staphylococcus, a common cause of skin infections and respiratory
disease. He wasn't wearing the required laboratory personal protective
equipment, including gloves, the report shows.
The
Register requested an interview with UI staff about the incidents.
University spokesman Stephen Pradarelli responded to questions in
writing, saying the incidents are typically self-reported by the
researchers and involve little or no risk to human health or safety. He
emphasized the importance of the university's research.
"Infectious
diseases like Lyme disease and bird flu present unique challenges, and
gaining basic understanding about their origins, behavior and
transmission within and across species is critical to defining measures
to reduce transmission and finding effective treatments," Pradarelli
wrote.
Even the laboratory incidents that appear to be
the most minor could have major consequences and deserve full
disclosure, said Brady Allin, director of operations for the
International Federation of Biosafety Associations, a Canadian-based
watchdog group that advocates for improved bio-safety measures. The
organization has struggled for years to fully document the problems
associated with biolabs, he said.
"An accident that
happens in a laboratory can result in someone going home, bringing it to
their family and children and it can spread from there," Allin said.
The
Register and USA TODAY identified nine bio-safety incidents at the
University of Iowa lab reported to the National Institutes of Health and
eight incidents at the USDA labs in Ames. The majority involved what
were described as minor injuries involving things such as researchers
cut with scalpels or stuck with needles.
The laboratories
conduct research on some of the world's most serious and sensitive
biological issues. The Ames labs, for example, include studies of the
highly contagious avian influenza aimed at developing vaccines and other
tools to prevent outbreaks such as those that are currently decimating
the nation's poultry industry.
The University of Iowa
refused to disclose the location, nature or number of biolabs it
oversees, citing an internal policy and claiming such information is not
public under Iowa law for security reasons.
The USDA
laboratories were more transparent, posting the address and photos of
the facility online along with a general description of their work and a
listing of employees.
Allin said he has struggled for
years to overcome the information obstacles associated with some
biolabs. Part of the reason is money. Institutions known to have
bio-security problems may have difficulty getting grants or government
allocations to continue their work.
"It is very difficult to get at the data in some cases," Allin said.
Gannett
news organizations encountered months of push back from some publicly
funded laboratories in response to record requests for bio-safety
meeting minutes and incident reports. In some cases, such as the
University of Kansas, entire pages of minutes from public meetings were
blocked from view.
USA TODAY filed a public records
complaint with the National Institutes of Health in February over the
university's attempt to charge nearly $400 for records at its two
laboratories, a fee the news organization argued was excessive. The
university later reduced the charges to $90.
A second public records complaint was filed against KU on May 14 over the redaction issue.
Some
of the redacted entries involved precisely the information needed for
public oversight and awareness, said Edward Hammond, a bio-science
researcher and writer in Texas who filed an open records complaint
against UI last year in an attempt to gather more information about the
MERS incident.
The university also redacted safety
committee minutes discussing inspections, sometimes to the extent it was
impossible to determine who conducted the checks or what problems, if
any, were found.
The inspection reports were related to
research that involves so-called "select agents," a term used to
describe hazardous materials that pose a severe threat to public health
and safety, Pradarelli told the Register this week. The UI spokesman
said federal guidelines allow the university to keep the information
secret.
But Hammond said such heavily redacted documents
are an example of how the public must too often rely on faith rather
than facts when it comes to bio-safety.
"Don't take their
claims at face value," Hammond said in response to conclusions
laboratory officials sometimes provide without offering data or public
records to support them. "These are people who are dedicated to making
sure accidents don't happen, and they often downplay incidents."