| http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=100645
Revealed: UK's secret bio-terror blueprint * 16-page paper sent to all councils * 'Prepare for highest casualties ever' By Severin Carrell and Geoffrey Lean 21 October 2001 Emergency services have been warned by the Government to prepare for the largest number of civilian casualties ever seen in Britain, in the event of a chemical or biological terrorist attack. A confidential document leaked to The Independent on Sunday reveals that thousands of people could be contaminated and emergency services and mortuaries overwhelmed if an attack were launched without warning. The 16-page document, Response to the Deliberate Release of Chemicals and Biological Agents, was issued to local councils and fire brigades on Thursday by the civil contingencies secretariat of the Cabinet Office. The Government did not announce that it had been sent out and an earlier draft, also seen by this newspaper, stated that its contents "should not be disclosed to members of the public". Ian Hoult, the general secretary of the Emergency Planning Society, said yesterday that publication of the document should reassure the public. The World Health Organisation has told governments that "clear and accurate communication of the risks to the public is paramount". Despite the spate of anthrax incidents in the US – which have so far infected eight people, killing one – the Cabinet Office document suggests that the risk of "a large-scale deliberate release" is low. Investigators now suspect the US attacks may be the work of a home-grown right-wing group rather than Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida. Further traces of anthrax were found in a mailroom of a US House of Representatives office building, officials said. The Government has consistently stressed that there is no expectation of chemical or biological attack in the UK, but the report admits it is "possible". The Public Health Laboratory Service has issued detailed instructions to Britain's doctors and hospitals on how to combat "deliberate releases" of anthrax, smallpox, botulism and plague. They are likely to cause controversy because they indicate that doctors and emergency workers – but not the general public – should be vaccinated before exposure to anthrax and smallpox. The report says: "The number of casualties could far exceed that resulting from any previous major incident in this country." Attacks "would be particularly dangerous where a large number of people were assembled in an enclosed area". Chemical attacks, perhaps using sarin, a nerve gas, would probably affect victims within 60 seconds, but biological attacks, such as anthrax, could take days to emerge. Local hospitals, GP surgeries, and mortuaries could be unable to cope. Temporary shelters, mortuaries and decontamination and treatment centres would be needed. The public would be asked to say indoors, and would only be evacuated if this posed a major threat to their health. "Large-scale evacuation could be extremely difficult and time-consuming." The guidance also reveals that ministers would take overall command in a chemical or biological attack by invoking secret national emergency plans. Home Office ministers in the Cobra civil emergency committee would oversee the emergency response. The army would have an unusually large role in tackling the crisis, with biological and chemical warfare experts from Porton Down drafted in to help the police. So would MI5, though references to it have been excised from the final version of the document. Senior emergency planning officers, who complained last month about being kept in the dark by the Government, said the report "gave a very good over-all, joined-up framework". |
