THE DAY SUBWAY GOT DUSTED

[Robertsino]

https://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ne ... e-1.794791

THE DAY SUBWAY GOT DUSTED


By MICHAEL DALY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
FEB 22, 1998

LARRY WAYNE HARRIS apparently had nonlethal germs, but if he or Saddam Hussein or anybody else wants the real stuff, they need only dig up a few spores from the grave of some anthrax-stricken cow. All you need to do then is add a broth of sugars, amino acids, salts and proteins such as can be had from any biological supply store. The germs un-spore and grow exponentially. The next step is make the germs re-spore by cutting off the air, say by putting them inside a light bulb. A light bulb also makes a handy weapon of mass destruction, as the Army demonstrated 32 years ago with secret "vulnerability tests" in the New York subway. Those light bulbs contained a harmless anthrax cousin, Bacillus subtilis variant niger. The air currents generated by the moving trains proved particularly effective at disseminating spores and an estimated 1 million people were exposed. This suggests that we can bomb Iraq forever and we will still be at the mercy of anyone who decides to micro-brew a little anthrax. "Test results show that a large portion of the working population in downtown New York City would be exposed to disease if one or more pathogenic agents were disseminated covertly in several subway lines at a period of peak traffic," the team reported. The "Study of the Vulnerability of Subway Passengers in New York City to Covert Attack with Biological Agents" began June 6, 1966. The 21-person team broke light bulbs on gratings on the Seventh and Eighth Ave. lines. Each bulb contained 175 grams of Bacillus, or about 87 trillion spores. "When the cloud engulfed people, they brushed their clothing, looked up at the grating and walked on," the team noted. "People in the big city are moving too fast to see what is going on around them.

" The team observed what happened to the germs when a train departed the station. "The cloud was pulled down the tube after it," the team noted. Team leader Charles Senseney rode the trains with a measuring device on his belt that was disguised to look like a photographic meter. Other team members toted what appeared to be briefcases and pocketbooks. The team members positioned in the station had more obvious devices. They later detailed their encounters with curious New Yorkers. "Sitting on bench in 28th St. station, a man also sat on bench, began to look at box sampler case, then asked me what was making so much noise," one team member wrote. "I answered, the radio. He seemed satisfied. A train came in, and he caught it.

" A second team member wrote: "A man sitting on bench beside me leaned over and looked into case. No comment made. I looked at him as if to indicate he should mind his own business, and he looked away.

" The lone challenge during the whole six-day test came from a transit cop who caught a team member smoking. The offender got off with a warning after he explained he was from out of town and produced a "cover" letter saying he was with an industrial research firm. "Following this, he completed sample collection without further questioning," the team later reported. The measuring device in the 23rd St. station showed that a citizen's "calculated respiratory exposure" was some 100,000 spores-a-breath just five minutes after the light bulbs broke. And each train pushed the germ agent farther along a test area stretching from 14th St. to 59th St. "Agent was recovered in air sample in all but one station in the test on the Eighth Ave. line within five minutes after each dissemination was initiated, and in all stations in the test on Seventh Ave.," the team noted. The team decided on the optimum means of dispersal. "Dropping an agent package to the roadbed from a rapidly moving train is an easy and effective method for covert contamination of a segment of a subway line with a biological agent," the team reported. The germ "is aerosolized and dispersed rapidly by the movement of the trains, penetrating stations and trains.

" By June 10, a million New Yorkers were hatching spores in the wet warmth of their lungs. Had it been anthrax, the whole city would have talked about the bad cold that was going around. The truth would have become apparent only when it was too late. OF COURSE, no city official was notified of the tests, and they remained secret until 1975, when the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence summoned Senseney to testify. He wore a plaid sports coat and a white tie as he offered his expert opinion as to what a couple of anthrax-laden light bulbs could accomplish in the subway. "Put New York out of commission," he said.