Posted on: Friday, October 11, 2002

Details on biowar testing requested

Previous stories:
• Pentagon details biowar testing here
• The Advertiser's initial 1984 report: Secret germ tests were held on Isles

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer

State Health Director Bruce Anderson is asking the federal government for more information about what biological materials people in Hawai'i were exposed to during the 1960s in military-run tests.

Anderson said it is unlikely there is a public health threat today from biological materials released decades ago.

Defense Department officials this week disclosed that thousands of people on O'ahu and others on the Big Island were exposed to live bacteria during Cold War-era government tests.

In 1984, the Advertiser had first reported in some detail on the military experiments but many questions remain unanswered regarding the exact locations of tests and the material used.

"We are asking the Department of Defense for exactly what was used and where," Anderson said yesterday. "We need a lot more information than we have today."

Although two of the substances reported used in the tests, Sarin and benzilic acid, are initially very toxic, they break down within a day or two. He said that's different from some pesticides that can last for decades in the environment.

Anderson said it's likely that anyone who had been exposed to the chemicals would have reacted immediately. "They would know it."

He said those materials could cause long-lasting nerve damage but that it would be unlikely such exposure would have gone undetected.

Anderson said much of the bacteria used is presumed to be harmless and he sees no need for immediate concern.