Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
And, indeed, the focus of Ozone was on how agents survived after dis-
persal, with the objectives of studying how airborne travel affected
Bru-
cella suis
and
Francisella tularensis;
undertaking preliminary studies with a
virus, VEE; and examining the influence of various dispersal methods on
the pathogens. These dispersal methods included high explosive, propel-
lant explosive, and spraying. The familiar pontoon-and-bomb method
was employed in a small number of trials, in which scientists measured
effects on the agents over short distances. The major change with Opera-
tion Ozone involved investigating the behavior of agents over distances
up to 1,200 yards. In these trials, experimenters placed agents in a flask
“fitted with a device which introduced compressed air into it and emitted
the liquid in the form of a spray on firing.” One significant result emerged
from these spray tests: the vulnerability of the organisms in daylight. The
trial report, referring to the three test organisms, pointed out that “we
can confidently say that their offensive use in such conditions would lose
a great deal of its potential effect through aerosol decay and lack of persis-
tent contamination. This would appear to apply only to seaborne attack
using onshore winds, which would generally have to be made in day-
light: other forms of attack would more probably be made at night or in
enclosed spaces.”
43
Operation Negation
Approval for the next series of trials, Operation Negation, scheduled for
the Bahamas between October 1954 and March 1955, came from the
Chiefs of Staff in August 1954. Permission came with an ominous pro-
viso: the Chiefs of Staff had “stipulated . . . that the continuance of trials
beyond 1955 must be subject to further consideration at the appropriate
time.”
44
During Negation, Henderson intended to use the same organisms as in
Ozone and possibly also eastern equine encephalitis, “as it was more le-
thal.”
45
He proposed to supplement the virus work by using vaccinia vi-
rus, related to cowpox and smallpox virus and proposed as a simulant of
smallpox, in order “to break new ground.” In the event, Negation em-
ployed
Brucella suis, Francisella tularensis,
and vaccinia. By June 1955,
BRAB members had summarized the main conclusions drawn from Ne-
gation. As with Operation Ozone, they emphasized the “extreme depen-
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