Biological Warfare

The mysterious vials that washed up on 30 miles of Orange County beaches the past 2 days were identified Tuesday as equipment used by the military as defense against chemical and biological warfare. Public health officials said the chemicals in the vials are antiseptics and not dangerous unless taken internally.

One month after admitting it worked on biological weapons, Iraq turned over a hefty report containing "very important information" about the program, the chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq said Sunday. However, Rolf Ekeus told reporters in Baghdad that his specialists "need some time before verifying and judging" the 530-page report to determine whether it meets conditions set by the U.N. Security Council for the lifting of sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Germs and dangerous toxins will be banned from the mail under new regulations announced Friday in the wake of congressional concern over reports that the military has increased shipments of such items. The action is being taken "to ensure the safety and health of . . . customers and employees," the Postal Service announced. "The Postal Service is concerned that some customers are planning increased use of the mails for sending disease germs or hazardous toxins."

The Reagan Administration has determined that Iraq--which reportedly used chemical weapons with devastating effect in its war against Iran--is now completing construction of a plant to produce even more fearsome biological weapons, U.S. sources confirmed Tuesday. The Administration has quietly expressed its "concern and displeasure" to the Baghdad government, the sources said. U.S.

Recently declassified U.S. government documents show the Reagan Administration accused Vietnam in 1981 of using biological warfare against insurgents in Laos and Cambodia even though government scientists at the time considered the evidence to be flimsy and misleading, Foreign Policy magazine said Sunday.

Last fall's biological warfare experiment against the ash whitefly, which has attacked trees in at least 15 California counties, was successful in killing the destructive pests, researchers reported Monday. However, ash whitefly experts said they need more money to continue the research that could provide a long-term solution to the ash whitefly problem. "We could really be set back if the University of California was unable to continue its research," said Peter J.

How's this for cool threads? Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been crafting a high-tech fabric for the military made out of tiny carbon nanotubes - hollow structures that stay breathable in hot weather yet are small enough to block out pathogens. For an extra layer of safety, they're planning to add a special coating that will block out even the smallest toxins, such as anthrax spores and other chemical and biological warfare agents. The technology is still in the concept stages, but the research has already received funding from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

In their most comprehensive disclosures about biological weaponry, Iraqi scientists have admitted to conducting groundbreaking research on viruses that make eyes bleed and cause lethal diarrhea in infants and on toxins that can eliminate entire crops, U.N. investigators and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

With the possibility of a war in the Persian Gulf that could include chemical as well as conventional weapons, the specter of another fearsome weapon--germ warfare--has been raised. The Pentagon said Friday that it is planning to vaccinate U.S. troops to protect them against possible biological warfare but refused to specify what vaccines would be administered or the germs that U.S. intelligence officials believe Iraq could unleash.

Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank declared that he intends to halt the Army's shipments of deadly experimental viruses through the U.S. mails, a practice that the Army has followed for years. In an interview published Monday in Federal Times, a newsletter for government employees, Frank said: "I don't think biological warfare agents should be shipped through the mail, and unless the Army can convince me it's absolutely safe, we aren't going to let them do it."