A brief history of FOOD TERRORISM and BIOCRIMES with some sorts of control measures

1. Presented by:
Pankaj Dhaka
Roll no. 5263
Division: veterinary Public Health

3.  An act or threat of deliberate contamination
of food for human consumption with
biological, chemical &physical agents or
radio nuclear material for the purpose of
causing injury or death to civilian
population and/or disrupting social,
economical and political stability.

4.  Natural Disasters: Public Health (Health and
Medical ) is supportive
 Bioterrorism: Public Health Leads with Law
Enforcement

5.  According to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention(CDC):
 A bioterrorism attack is the deliberate
release of viruses, bacteria, toxins or other
harmful agents used to cause illness or death
in people, animals, or plants.
 These agents are typically found in nature,
but it is possible that they could be mutated
or altered to increase their ability to cause
disease, make them resistant to current
medicines, or to increase their ability to be
spread into the environment.
Terrorists tend to use biological agents
because they are extremely difficult to
detect.

6.  American Congressional
Research Service -report to
Congress defines :
 “agroterrorism” as “the
deliberate introduction of an
animal or plant disease with the
goal of generating fear, causing
economic losses, and/or
undermining stability.”

7.  Biological terrorism dates as far back as Ancient
Rome, when feces were thrown into faces of enemies.
 This early version of biological terrorism continued
on into the 14th century where the bubonic plague
was used to infiltrate enemy cities, both by instilling
the fear of infection in residences, in hopes that they
would evacuate, and also to destroy defending forces
that would not yield to the attack.

8.  Over time, biological warfare became more
complex. Countries began to develop
weapons which were much more effective,
and much less likely to cause infection to
the wrong party.
 One significant enhancement in biological
weapon development was the first use of
anthrax.
 Anthrax became a weapon of choice because it is
easily transferred, has a high mortality rate, and
could be easily obtained. Also, variants of the
anthrax bacterium can be found all around the
world making it the biological weapon of choice
in the early 19th century.

9.  Charles Darwin — possibly died
due to self-medication with
Fowler's solution.(Fowler's
solution is a solution containing
1% potassium arsenite (KH2AsO3),
and once prescribed as a remedy
or a tonic.

10. Napoleon Bonaparte —
some claim he was
killed by someone on
his staff with arsenic.

11. Chandragupta Maurya‘s queen
Durdhara(d. 320 BC) was accidentally
poisoned when she ate poisoned food
meant for the emperor who was immune.
Adolf Hitler(d. 1945) cyanide and gunshot
simultaneously before capture

12.  During world war 1 , Anton Dilger who
was a German physician ,but in 1915
he was sent to the U.S carrying
cultures of glanders
 Dilger set up a laboratory in his home
in Chevy Chase, Maryland and did
infection to horses with glanders while
they were waiting to be shipped to
Britain. Dilger was under suspicion as
being a German agent, but was never
arrested.

13.  Lal bhadur Shastri's sudden
death has led to persistent
conspiracy theories that he
was poisoned.
 The first inquiry into his death
was conducted by the Raj
Narain Inquiry, however did
not come up with any
conclusions .
 It was alleged that no post-mortem
was done on Shastri,
but the Indian government in
2009, claimed it did have a
report of a medical
investigation conducted by
Shastri's personal physician
Dr. R.N. Chugh and some
Russian doctors.

14. In the United States, 1985
outbreak of Salmonella
typhimurium infection that
affected 170,000 people, caused
by contamination of pasteurized
milk from a contaminated dairy
plant.

15.  In September and October 2001,
several cases of anthrax broke out in the
United States in the 2001 anthrax
attacks, caused deliberately. Letters
laced with infectious anthrax were
delivered to news media offices and the
U.S Congress.

17. Principles of the Food Protection Plan
 Focus on risks over a product's life cycle from
production to consumption.
 Target resources to achieve maximum risk
reduction.
 Address both unintentional and deliberate
contamination.
 Use science and modern technology systems.

19. FDA's Integrated Plan Provides Three
Elements of Protection
 PREVENT Food borne Contamination
 Promote Increased Corporate Responsibility to
Prevent Foodborne Illnesses
 Identify Food Vulnerabilities and Assess Risks
 Expand the Understanding and Use of Effective
Mitigation Measures


20.  INTERVENE at Critical Points in the Food Supply
Chain
 Focus Inspections and Sampling Based on Risk
 Enhance Risk-Based Surveillance
 Improve the Detection of Food System “Signals”
that Indicate Contamination

21. RESPOND Rapidly to Minimize Harm
 Improve Immediate Response
 Improve Risk Communications to the Public,
Industry and Other Stakeholders

23.  Operations
 Incoming Products
 Storage
 Outgoing Products
 Security of Water and Utilities
 Security of Ventilation Systems
 Mail Packages
 Access to Computer Systems

24. Management of Food Security:
 Operators of establishments should
consider:
 Security procedures
 Assigning responsibility for security to
qualified individual(s)
 Encouraging all staff to be alert to signs of
tampering with product or equipment or
systems, or other unusual situations, or areas
that may be vulnerable to tampering and to
notify identified management about any
findings.

25.  Investigation of suspicious activity
 Immediately investigating all information about suspicious activity
 Alerting local law enforcement about all suspected criminal
activity
Supervision
 Providing an appropriate level of supervision to all employees,
including data entry personnel, computer support, cleaning and
maintenance staff, and contract workers, and especially new
employees
 Conducting daily security checks of the premises for signs of
tampering with product or equipment, other unusual situations, or
areas that may be vulnerable to tampering

26.  Mail/packages
 implementing
procedures to ensure
the security of incoming
mail and packages (e.g.,
secure mailroom, visual
or x-ray mail package
screening)

27.  One of the famous quote of Albert
Einstein:
Any intelligent fool can make things
bigger and more complex... It takes
a touch of genius and a lot of
courage to move in the opposite
direction.