The new biological weapons : threat, proliferation, and control

192 Pages·2001·1.508 MB·English

by  Dando, Malcolm

THE NEW
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

THE NEW
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Threat, Proliferation, and Control
Malcolm Dando
boulder
london
Published in the United States of America in 2001 by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
1800 30th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80301
www.rienner.com
and in the United Kingdom by
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8LU
© 2001 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dando, Malcolm.
The new biological weapons : threat, proliferation, and control /
by Malcolm Dando.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55587-924-1 (alk. paper)
1. Biological weapons. 2. Biological arms control. I. Title.
JZ5830.D36 2000
327.1'745—dc21 00-034209
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book
is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements
∞
of the American National Standard for Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984.
5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Technological Change and Arms Control 1
2 Operational Toxin and Bioregulatory Weapons 17
3 Concerns About the Misuses of Biotechnology 33
4 Toxins 45
5 Bioregulatory Peptides 67
6 Specificity: Receptors 87
7 Agent Delivery 103
8 Targets 117
9 Can the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
Be Strengthened? 133
10 The Future of Arms Control 153
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations 163
Further Reading 167
Index 169
About the Book 181
v

Tables & Figures
TABLES
1.1 The Chemical and Biological Warfare Threat Spectrum 12
2.1 The Phases of the U.S. Offensive Biological Warfare Program 18
2.2 U.S. Herbicide Usage by Type of Mission 27
2.3 Plant Hormones and Their Functions 29
3.1 Some Goals of the Human Genome Project for 1998–2003 39
4.1 Families of Venomous Snakes 46
4.2 Some Characteristics of Chemical and Toxin Agents 51
4.3 Comparative Lethality of Toxins in Laboratory Mice 52
4.4 Categorization of Toxins by Toxicity 53
5.1 Endothelin/Sarafotoxin 68
5.2 Some Effects of Peptides 79
5.3 Some Regulatory Functions of Peptides 79
6.1 Chronology of Different Approaches to Drug Discovery 98
7.1 Amount of Toxin Required for Lethality in Various
Attack Scenarios 107
7.2 Nonpeptide Antagonists 113
8.1 Types of Biological Warfare 122
8.2 Lactose Absorption by Adult Population 126
8.3 Some Racial/Ethnic Differences in Single-Gene Disorders 126
9.1 Toxin Assessment According to Criteria for Selecting Toxins
as Toxin Weapons 142
9.2 Toxin Risk Assessment 143
FIGURES
4.1 Diagrammatic Cross-Section of the Interaction Between
Superantigen and MHC Class II and the TCR Complex 62
vii
viii TABLES AND FIGURES
5.1 Amino Acid Sequence of Endothelin-1 71
5.2 Diagrammatic Representation of the Structure of
Endothelin 72
5.3 Amino Acid Sequence of Substance P 75
Acknowledgments
This book was written with the support of the United States Institute of
Peace (grant SG-36-98). In previous books I have considered biological
agents generally (Biological Warfare in the 21st Century, 1994) and inca-
pacitating chemical agents (A New Form of Warfare, 1996). Here, I have
tried to deal more fully with new (midspectrum) agents that fall between
living biological agents and classical chemical agents on the spectrum of
chemical and biological threats.
In writing the book I have received much help. I would like to thank
both Alistair Hay of the University of Leeds and my colleague Simon
Whitby for the use of some of their original source material. I am once
again particularly grateful to Julian Perry-Robinson for access to the Har-
vard-Sussex archive of material on chemical and biological arms and arms
control. I have also to thank the Bradford University Life Science librarian
Ann Costigan and Mary Pat Wilhelm from the University of Pennsylvania
Medical School who replaced her during their academic exchange visits.
Both were always willing to assist with my requests for diverse computer
database searches and were interested in what I was trying to discover.
My thanks to Mandy Oliver for coming to the rescue in typing drafts
during the end game, and most of all to my wife, Janet, for typing most of
the manuscript, proofreading, and endless efforts to clarify my meaning. I
am of course responsible for any errors that remain.
ix