Radiation Technology Against Bioterrorism

The threat of bioterrorism has prompted a reaction from governments and scientists in a rapidly expanding war against unknown attacker. In the United States, the Postal Service has announced new safety measures that include processing mail with electron beam technology to eliminate potentially dangerous microorganisms. The microbiocidal activity of radiation is one of the radiobiological effects that is of considerable interest in medicine and public health. It has already been employed for sterilizing medical equipment and supplies, medicaments, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and biological tissue. L. G. Gazsó recommended first to use ionizing radiation for the inactivation of biological weapon agents (VI. Int. Symposium on Protection Against Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, Stockholm, 1998. and Symposium on Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Treats in the 21 Century, Helsinki, 2000.) The calculation of inactivation dose depends on three parameters, namely the initial microbiological contamination (number of microbes), the radiosensitivity of microorganism and the assurance of sterility required. The radiosensitivity of microorganism towards high energy radiation varies widely: different types, species and strains exhibit greatly different radiation sensitivity. Certain environmental factors are also able to influence the actual radiation response. The intent of this paper is to provide a broad overview of the importance of radiation neutralizing of bio-warfare/bioterrorism agents, indicate what further work is needed and summarize the recent experiences. The application of radiation technology for inactivation of bioterrorism agents and the main results of NATO Advanced Research Workshop on “Radiation Inactivation of Bioterrorism Agents” (7-9 March, 2004, Budapest, Hungary, NATO Co-director L. G. Gazsó) are described in this paper.