Tom Flocco and Gary Bokelmann
Monday, Oct. 22, 2001

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks – and before anthrax scares diverted public attention to the threat of terrorism by mail – a number of federal officials were focusing on the danger of bioterrorists contaminating the nation’s food supply.

In one instance in late September, officials from the Food and Drug Administration contacted several leading dairy industry groups for advice on food safety issues.

Christopher Galen, vice president of communications for the National Milk Producers Federation, said his organization and other industry groups were contacted by the Milk Safety Branch of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition late last month.

The Milk Safety Branch initiated a teleconference with the trade groups to discuss the potential dangers of bioterrorism in the dairy industry. "They asked us to assess where we thought there may be some concerns, asking those sorts of questions," he said.

Galen said the call was not an alert to the industry.

In fact, he said, "it was more an opportunity for us to provide input to them, as opposed to the flow of information going the other way."

He said FDA officials seemed to be working from a prepared list of questions, which were aimed at evaluating "where in the whole distribution process – from farm to plate or glass – where do we need to focus our efforts and tighten our scrutiny?"

A spokesperson at the FDA would not discuss the questions asked, or even confirm that the teleconference occurred.

Nevertheless, several other officials have spoken publicly about the threat of bioterrorism in the nation’s food supply.

One of them is Dr. Bernard Schwetz, the FDA’s acting principal deputy commissioner, who told a congressional subcommittee on Oct. 10 that "great strides have been made" in addressing food safety issues. He also acknowledged, however, "We must enhance our ability to identify risks, take action and measure results."

Another is Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who earlier this week introduced legislation that calls for spending more than $3.5 billion to protect the nation’s food supply from terrorists.

Yet another perspective on the problem comes from the General Accounting Office, which was completing a study of bioterrorism preparedness about the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The study found "evidence that coordination …is fragmented" among the more than 20 federal departments and agencies that have a role in preparing for a bioterrorist threat.

In submitting its report to Congress earlier this month, however, the GAO added, "We did … find recent actions to improve coordination across federal departments and agencies."

Anthrax Threat to Food

While terrorists have used the mail to deliver anthrax, exposing dozens and infecting several with inhalation and cutaneous (skin) forms of anthrax, another form is intestinal anthax.

While inhalation anthax is the most dangerous, intestinal anthrax, if not caught early, has a 50 percent fatality rate.

Food provides an easy way to deliver anthrax.

For example, intestinal anthrax could threaten schools in the form of terrorist-tainted milk and other small-carton beverages. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee, said recently that "food security can no longer be separated from our national security."

One of Durbin's hearing witnesses and FDA Deputy Commissioner Bernard Schwetz acknowledged that it would be "possible for food to become a medium for a terrorist to reach a large number of people quickly."

Durbin's colleague Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said, "I am very troubled that the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food shipments that arrive in the United States."

Not Checking Workers

Since the new director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, just left his post as governor of Pennsylvania, it would seem natural to consider susceptibility to terrorism starting with the Keystone State.

An investigation of Pennsylvania State Police criminal background check procedures for safety and security clearances in hiring workers having daily contact with processed milk, juice drinks, teas and lemonade, etc., reveals a degree of vulnerability to bioterrorism.

Moreover, many dairies rely upon such checks for employing their workers.

When hiring individals for production of beverage products universally ingested on a daily basis by young children, therefore, the nation's dairies may be dependent upon inherently flawed criminal background check procedures -- if Pennsylvania is held as a standard.

Current weak immigration oversight could also contribute to bioterrorism. The food industry is well-known for hiring illegals or immigrants in low-paying jobs. Jack Lewis, public information officer of the Pennsylvania State Police, revealed that prior criminal record checks for dairy workers are only affected for in-state crimes.

When asked whether such an individual could commit a felony in Ohio and move to Pennsylvania to pass a criminal background check, Lewis replied, "We only check in-state prior criminal records, but weapons applications undergo a national check."

Also, according to Lewis, database verification of citizenship or Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) visa violations are not carried out for dairy workers: "We verify the date of birth, Social Security number, and prior in-state criminal record."

But some dairies do not even require a criminal background check.

New Jersey State Police criminal background unit spokesman David Clemens indicated that his state only checks for in-state criminal records regarding dairy workers, while also "not requiring a legal waiver for fingerprinting on a state and federal basis."

New Jersey's telephone menu clearly verifies that immigration and visa checks are a major part of its criminal background program -- given the fact that New Jersey has the fifth or sixth largest illegal immigrant population in the United States.

However, only a specific request from a dairy employer would trigger New Jersey's fingerprinting process -- seemingly the gateway for a more effectual procedure related to ascertaining identity theft, foreign forged documents and visa violations, etc.

Clemens added that no extra concern or investigation is implemented regarding Middle Easterners in the process.

Lewis also said that Pennsylvania's background-check unit does not have a procedure for verifying the authenticity of a dairy worker's personal credentials, such as Social Security numbers or documents from other countries -- both of which could be critical, given a Washington Post report that an unnamed Saudi official revealed that terrorist hijackers "may have used forged documents and stolen the identities of innocent people."

Down On The Farm

Philip Julian, plant manager of Kreider Dairy Farms, a large supplier located in the fertile Lancaster County farm country of Pennsylvania, uses his own questionaire while trying to verify past employment of prospective workers.

However, even though he is hiring people to work in a highly sensitive environment -- potentially subject to terrorism -- involving production of children's beverages, Julian said, "I am only allowed to ask so much. I am limited in certain areas because I don't want to be subject to court liability in my hiring practices."

Susan Keller, spokeswoman for Clover Farms Dairy of Reading, Pa., declined to answer any questions regarding procedures for product storage, packaging, security, or whether background checks are customary and/or necessary, replying, "We are not interested in participating in anything regarding our policies."

Human Resources Director Wilmer Eby of Lancaster County's Turkey Hill Farms -- supplying dairy products to the Delaware Valley and beyond -- said that his company uses an employment agency, although he was not aware of the depth and nature of their investigative procedures.

Eby added, "We have a very short turnaround time between pasteurization-testing and actual packaging of beverages; and besides, we're pretty much a 24-hour operation, with workers having access to our plant all the time."

Other Pennsylvania dairies use background checks provided by state police, according to Lewis, as a part of their hiring procedures for dairy workers.

Kreider Dairy's Julian expressed some concern when asked about the potential for an individual to tamper with products during the packaging process, even conceding that one person could theoretically taint products in the packaging process without careful, strict and continuous supervision.

He also agreed that one individual could cause a severe problem for hundreds of children.

Wawa Inc., a southeastern Pennsylvania dairy giant, supplying products to five states via its 500 retail stores, 13,000 employees, 100+ fleet of tractor-trailers, and a state of the art automated multi-state warehousing system, was quite reticent to discuss Wawa's hiring, product packaging, and warehouse storage procedures and practices.

Current procedures for ascertaining citizenship and/or visa credentials, out-of-state felony convictions, and lack of measures to check document authenticity afford the possibility that a terrorist could work at a major food processor and have the ability to infect thousands with a lethal biological agent.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bioterrorism
Homeland/Civil Defense
War on Terrorism
Health Issues

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