IP: RE: Size made Spores Dead-er (...Questionable data alert...)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Reply-To: <eackerma () u washington edu>
> From: "Ethan Ackerman" <eackerma () u washington edu>
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> David,
> I know your comment the past several days has been that politicians don't
> seem to reliably give the right data, they just get quoted and the truth
> comes as a footnote, so I thought I should start the footnoting process...
> (or be corrected shortly by a more informed source :)
>
> Here's the suspicious data:
> The Washington Post article quotes Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) as identifying
> particulate size, as milled,  of the Daschle office particulates at 1.5 -3
> micron size (that is .0015 - .003 millimeters).
> (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47864-2001Oct24.html )
>
> Those numbers should catch a cell biologist's eye. (They caught mine, and
> I'm only undergrad biochemist turned law student...)
> That is a small particulate size, about the size of the bacillus itself,
> possibly smaller.
>
> A quick Net search revealed:
> The Anthrax bacteria is a bacillus (bacillus anthracis), which is apparently
> about 1 micron in diameter and 5 microns long (imagine a pop-can shaped
> bacteria)
> (see
> http://www.who.int/emc-documents/zoonoses/docs/whoemczdi986.html#_Hlk4366340
> 50 )
>
> The spore (which is basically the only way airborne Anthrax is transmitted,
> and what we're concerned with here) is a different stage in the bacteria's
> life cycle, it seems to be smaller, 1-3 microns in diameter, and more round.
> (see http://www.bio.psu.edu/People/Faculty/Whittam/apdbase/b22.html )
> For comparison, the average human ( or other eukaryotic cell) is closer to
> 50 microns in diameter.
>
> The point: If the medium that the bacteria is cultured in is being ground as
> finely as claimed, many if not most of the cells are being destroyed.
>
> For comparison, "plate" a bunch of humans onto a large floor of an
> auditorium by having them lie down in a random but close together pattern.
> Using a circular "cookie-cutter" 7 foot in diameter, stamp your way across
> the floor.  How many of those stamps left an entirely intact human? (gory,
> but you get the point.)
>
> I suppose the sheer quantity of particles could statistically overcome this,
> or that the spores "ooze" to one side of the grinding blade during
> processing, reducing cell destruction, but it still seems awfully small.
>
> Trying to find a silver lining, if the milling was as fine as reported,
> maybe that was why none of the 30 reported exposures in Sen. Daschle's
> office have resulted in contagion.  They were just inhaling ground up
> particles that had, on average, 1/3 to 2/3 of a single bacillus anthracis
> cell.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/25/national/25CND-ANTH.html
>
> -Ethan
>
>
>
> Ethan Ackerman
> Senior Research Fellow, Center for Law, Commerce & Technology
> University of Washington School of Law
> 1100 NE Campus Parkway
> Seattle, WA 98105
> Tel:  206.440.0853/Fax: 206.616.3427
> http://www.law.washington.edu/lct/


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