U.S. Water News Online
BALTIMORE, Md. -- CIA-funded scientists have found a way to trace weaponized anthrax spores to the place they were grown, using the chemical fingerprints of local water supplies, a researcher says.
The method, presented at a biodefense conference in Baltimore, measures minute quantities of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes that exist in different ratios in water from different parts of the United States.
The telltale isotopes remain in the spores even if they are dried into a fine powder, like the anthrax mailed to U.S. senators and media organizations s hortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the researchers said.
Five people died as a result of the mailings. No arrests have been made.
Helen W. Kreuzer-Martin, a University of Utah biologist and lead author of the study, said FBI agents working on the anthrax investigation have consulted her research team about their methods, but have not given them a sample of the mailed anthrax for testing.
She said the FBI may have used similar techniques to trace the water or chemical nutrients used to grow the deadly bacteria used in the mailings, which also infected 18.
FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said she could not discuss any investigative techniques used in the anthrax probe.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The meeting drew 800 scientists from around the world to discuss bioterrorism protection and treatment.
The researchers grew Bacillus subtilis, a harmless bacteria resembling anthrax, using local water from five U.S. cities. After freeze-drying the spores and analyzing them, they were easily able to distinguish those grown in Baton Rouge, La.; Los Alamos, N.M.; Durham, N.C.; and Salt Lake City.
They were not able to tell bacteria grown in Durham from that grown in Columbus, Ohio, though, because the water in those two cities contains nearly identical quantities of the oxygen and hydrogen isotopes.
While the method might not pinpoint the exact source of water used to grow germs, it can rule out many locations.
``It's not foolproof,'' Kreuzer-Martin said. ``But if the terrorist used water from the tap, we could tell a lot about where the spores were grown. We could say, for example, the spores were not grown in Iraq, they were not grown at Dugway Proving Ground [in Utah], but they could have been grown in Chicago.''
A Central Intelligence Agency scientist, Janet Dorigan, collaborated on the study.
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