Universal Detection Technology Issues Analysis of the Recent Government Alert Regarding Bioterror Weapons
Recent Events Show That the Air Cargo System Is as Vulnerable to a Bioterrorist Attack as the Pre-9/11 Mail Delivery System
LOS ANGELES, CA, Nov 02, 2010
Universal Detection Technology (www.udetection.com) (OTCBB: UNDT), a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats, and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, issued an analysis of the recent government alert regarding bioterror weapons. The alert warned against the proliferation of advanced synthetic DNA makers. UNDT also analyzed the vulnerability of the Air Cargo System to a bioterrorist attack.
Scientists have been engineering genetic sequences for decades and commercial gene sequencing has been around for years; however, if the sensitive materials get the wrong hands; it will soon be possible to recreate bacterial pathogens like smallpox -- and even enhance these pathogens, making them more potent. Scientists have discussed the possibility that new "designer" biological weapons could be engineered.
Air cargo poses unique dilemmas because of the vast volume of packages and the patchwork system of regulations governing inspections. In addition, air cargo moves both on airlines that carry only freight and on passenger planes. And the freight industry is by no means uniform.
For now, freight carried on all-cargo planes does not have as stringent screening requirements as freight on passenger planes. Also, foreign carriers that bring cargo into the United States operate by their own sets of rules, which vary significantly from country to country.
Every day, 20 million pounds of cargo, or 16 percent of the total freight carried by air into or out of the United States, are transported by passenger planes, according to the International Air Cargo Association. The vast majority, or 84 percent, is carried on cargo planes.
"It is well known that Al-Qaeda has been trying to develop a biological weapon capability for some time and the packages sent last week would have gone undetected had they contained a biological weapon such as anthrax," said Jacques Tizabi, CEO of Universal Detection Technology. "The air cargo transport system should take advantage of the most advanced bioweapon detection technologies," continued Tizabi.
For more information, please visit www.udetection.com or email info@udetection.com. |
