State aims to protect milk supply from terrorists

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Increased security and training are in place to protect the milk produced in Nevada from being contaminated by terrorists, a state official said Monday.

"We need to reassure the public we have been very active in protecting the food supply," said Michael Compston, executive director of the state Dairy Commission.

He made the statement because researchers at Stanford University have released a study that concluded that a third of an ounce of botulism toxin in a milk truck could cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Compston said a lot of milk industry people were upset at the publication of the study on the Web site of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"The last thing we want to do is put an X on vulnerable places," he said.

He said a lot of the information put on the Web site and then published in the Washington Post should have been kept confidential.

Many national health officials and advocates of informing the public counter, however, that the release of the report will help force the dairy industry to make the milk supply more secure.

There are about 40 producers of milk in Nevada that ship the product through pipelines to holding tanks where it is then transported by tanker to the three plants for final processing. Anderson and Meadow Gold in Las Vegas and Model Dairy in Reno are the final destinations before the packaged milk is shipped to supermarkets, stores and schools.

Dan McPartlin, food services director for the Clark County School District, said Anderson Dairy has been the district's supplier for a number of years. All milk products are delivered in sealed cartons and containers to the district's more than 300 schools, McPartlin said.

The milk trucks, said Compston, are sealed and locked while transporting the milk. At the three plants, access is limited. Employees must have magnetic cards to enter.

But Compston concedes it's not a foolproof system.

"If somebody really wants to do it, they can do it," he said.

Compston urged consumers to check the milk cartons they buy in the store to make sure they are sealed.

The Stanford study examined the possibility of a terrorist dumping concentrated sludge containing as little as 10 grams of botulism toxin into a tanker. The scientists assumed the tanker would go into a processing plant and be put into a tank with hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk.

The toxin would be diluted but potentially lethal, the scientists reported. When distributed, the milk would reach more than 500,000 people, according to the report.

The report suggested that locks be installed on the tanker trucks, there be quicker ways to identify if milk is contaminated and there be improved pasteurizing methods.

Compston said the tanker trucks have locked tanks. In addition, his inspectors are going to the 40 producers at least once a month to look for ways to improve security.

Producers in Nevada supply about 40 percent of the milk consumed in the state. Yogurt and other items are produced out of state and shipped to Nevada. Compston said it would be impossible to inspect every item that is coming into the state.

Dr. Tom Higgins, an emergency room physician at University Medical Center who is also board-certified in medical toxicology, said there are about 25 cases of botulism reported nationwide each year.

"Botulism in and of itself isn't automatically fatal with appropriate medical care," Higgins said.

But if hundreds of thousands of people were suddenly stricken ill, Southern Nevada's hospitals would likely struggle to meet their needs, Higgins said.

"I can't think of a city in this country that could handle 200,000 people sick with a life-threatening illness, any illness," Higgins said. "That's not a criticism of our preparedness for bio-terrorism. It's a question of economics. You can't have millions of critical-care hospital beds waiting for something that hopefully will never happen."