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CDC Considers Increased Lab Scrutiny

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The Associated Press

Published: October 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government does not conduct surprise inspections of laboratories handling the world's most dangerous organisms and poisons, but regulators said Thursday that they may change their tactics.
Centers For Disease Control and Prevention officials said they're reviewing the policy after the failure of inspectors to learn of worker infections last year at Texas A&M University.

'As a rule, we do not do surprise inspections,' said Robbin Weyant, director of Select Agents and Toxins at the CDC. 'The issue of unannounced inspections is something we need to consider.'

The CDC inspects high-security research laboratories once every three years, although there are additional inspections when an accident is reported or a lab changes its research.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee, said CDC inspectors who visited the Texas A&M lab last year - shortly after a worker was exposed to Brucella bacteria - didn't catch the problem.

The lab was required to report the exposure to the government immediately, but did not do so until this year.

'Without a surprise inspection, how are you going to know?' Stupak asked.

CDC inspectors didn't learn of the worker exposure, but a watchdog group did. The Sunshine Project, through the Texas open records law, discovered not only the Brucella infection but also the exposure of three other workers to the agent that causes Q Fever.

Richard Besser, the CDC's anti-terrorism coordinator, told the House hearing the agency is looking at ways to improve its inspection program. It may change the composition of inspection teams and do more inspections.

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