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Plum Island Animal And
Disease Center
By Helise Flickstein
10-1-00
 
 
 
 
I just wrote to Helise regarding her interview. I will let you know more when I hear from her. It does sound like she backs up everything that I have been saying for over a year.
 
Patty
 
 
Cloning And More On Plum Island
 
By Helise Flickstein 10-1-00
 
Cloning? West Nile? Hurricane Bob? Employees contracting diseases? Upgrading to a Level 4? Sewage dumping into the Plum Gut? These are the questions and the answers I have been exploring for the past year because I am writing a screenplay about Plum Island. On another level I am also the mother of two small children of nineteen months and three years old, a former news reporter for TV-55, and a resident of the Township of Southold. I am concerned for the public's safety and for the employees that work there.
 
I had a 1 hour-long interview with Dr. David Huxsoll, Plum Island Animal and Disease Center's newest Director. When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about cloning on Plum Island? He said, "Were not doing much of cloning here right now. That doesn't mean we won't be cloning in the future. It would help with the development of the vaccines." Which means that they are in fact cloning. During my tour with Carlos Santoyos, Plum Island's Assistant Director, he took me by the old Fort Terry buildings. On one of the buildings itself there has a plaque with the title "Guinea Pig Colony". When I had asked Mr. Santoyos why is that particular building called that? He stated, "We use to clone guinea pigs here."
 
When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about DNA sequencing, or Genomics being studied at Plum Island Animal and Disease Center? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are working on Genomics of some of the agents that we work with like Foot & Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever. Because we are interested in looking at the variability of one strain to another and what the genes that make up the organism are responsible for. It is possible to tell by looking at one those (diseases) with sequencing and getting all those genes all lined up to separate which strain came from Africa versus which one comes from Asia."
 
I had asked Dr. Huxsoll what the current situation was with the sheep at Plum Island? He said that, "We currently have tissue samples." I also asked him do the people of Vermont realize that there is sheep with Madcow Disease up there? He said, "That's between the Department of Agriculture and the owner of the flock." What if people contracted Madcow Disease? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "It's a neurological illness that effects the brain. A person would develop neurological signs that could very tremendously interfere with locomotion, walking, and your normal activities. It could interfere with your mental capacity." These are the same sheep with diseases that they wanted to bring through our very own Township of Southold. What I found odd is that when I asked to be let into the lab area Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are not letting anyone behind the barrier right now." A former employee, their name withheld, stated, "Plum Island regularly brings diseased animals to the island."
 
When I went to the February 2000, Township of Southold meeting, I stated my concerns about the following two articles. An article from the Suffolk Times, "P.I. 'Probably' Will Research AIDS" by Tim Gould, dated February 16, 1984, said, "In 1981 they were researching the African Swine fever in conjunction with the AIDS virus. Forty-seven employees were tested on and after the research. Six of the employees had contracted the African Swine Fever," which is not supposed to be a zoonotic disease. Zoonotic means a disease that is transferable to animals and humans. These are the types of diseases that they wish to study when they upgrade Plum Island to a level 4. According to Dr. Huxsoll, the disease that they will be studying is the "Nipha virus that effects pigs. It is a neurological disease that effects man. The legions look like a viral infection infiltration of the brain. It makes holes in the brain sort of like swiss cheese." He also stated, "Once we build the Level 4 facility, it will probably be connected to the Administrative building and building 101, which will remain at a Level Three." At the at Township of Southold, Dr. Lee Ann Thomas, then acting Director of Plum Island Animal and Disease Center, stated that, "We are handling diseases now that no one knows about already."
 
In an article from Newsday, "Safety at Animal Lab Questioned" by John McDonald, dated September 19, 1991. "During Hurricane Bob, Plum Island's power was out for eighteen hours and that their backup generator was down for three months prior." That means that their diseases were defrosting during for those 18 hours and that their negative air pressure, which keeps the diseases in, was not functioning and were essentially airborne.
 
There was also an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in 1978 where the entire island had to be evacuated and all of the animals were destroyed. According to Dr. Huxsoll, "there might have been a breakdown in engineering designs or maybe it was personnel."
 
What puzzled me was the recent emergence of foreign diseases in Manhattan and on Long Island itself within the past year. Isn't Plum Island's sole purpose to study foreign animals' diseases? Yes. Coincidental, I think not. According to Dominick Vinivaggi, Superintendent of the Division of Vector Control stated, that "1999's outbreak of the West Nile Encephalitis Virus where 66 people were hospitalized and the human death toll is now 8." From articles I found the Rift Valley Fever or West Nile was being studied at Plum Island since 1979. Let us not forget, "the Equestrian Encephalitis where 22 horses were infected 8 of which died in Jamesport just last year," according to Mr. Vinivaggi. According to an article from 1994, Dr.Breeze, then Plum Island's Director, stated that they have been studying Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis. Let us also not forget about the two 11 year old boys that contracted Malaria at the Boy Scout Camp in Baiting Hollow just last summer. Dr. Huxsoll stated, "There seems to be a mosquito to bird transmission happening here. Maybe someone brought it back by plane." Personally I am not buying it.
 
I also spoke with Dr. Huxsoll about his past history as a United Nations Head Biological Inspector in Iraq. When I met with Dr. Huxsoll, I dared to ask what diseases were found in Iraq? Dr. Huxsoll said that during his trips to Iraq that "they definitely had a biological warfare program, they admitted that. We initially looked at a facility called Salmond Pack, which is near Baghdad. Most of their facilities are near Baghdad. At Salmond Pack were anthrax & bÈchalinum toxin and clostridium profricance. The first two I mentioned are diseases and the last one is an organism. I say that because an organism can cause some different kinds of diseases. We never associated that very much with a biological warfare program." According to a former employee, their name withheld, "The Army would come to Plum Island everytime a new disease was introduced."
 
According to Tom Sawicki, Safety Director at Plum Island, "There are 20 firefighters on call to date." When I asked Tom Sawicki "How many firefighters are there at night?" His answer was, "To be honest with you there are only one or two on call." Then I asked, "If a fire had broken out at night and it had gotten to the point where this person could not handle it alone would the Orient Fire Department be called?" His answer was "No, his people would be contacted first, they are specially trained to handle anything on the island." I then asked, "How long would it take for his people to get there?" His answer was "To be quiet honest with you, it could take up to 45 minutes or longer to get there." Another words we are all doomed.
 
After speaking with former Union Head, Ed Hulriser, he told me that "employees had to be inoculated with unapproved FDA drugs to prevent them from contracting the diseases that they are handling, or they would be given menial jobs to perform on the island." When I had asked the Department of Agriculture at the Greenport meeting in November 1999, if this was true? Mrs. Wilda Martinez, Northeast Regional Director for the Department of Agriculture, stated that, "These allegations are unfounded." After the meeting Tom Sawicki himself came over to me and said, "Look, I'm inoculated with these drugs and I'm fine." But what he doesn't realize is that the government is using their own employees as human guinea pigs. Does he or anyone from Plum Island know what the long term side affects are from these drugs and/or vaccines?
 
How many times do we as taxpayers and members of a community have to be hit in the head? Diseases are real. Plum Island Animal and Disease Center is real. We as members of the community are ignoring it as we sit in our safe and secure little worlds. At the local and state level there is really no recourse of action against Plum Island being that it is a federally run facility they can do whatever they want and dump whatever they want into the Plum Island Gut and on the island itself. In 1998 the DEC's report stated that, "The PIADC was in violation of it's State Pollutant Discharge Emission System (SPDES) Permit.
 
That permit allows PI to discharge 60,000 gallons of secondary treatment wastewater into the southern corner of Plum Gut, which showed that their daily discharge of 89,000 gallons was nearly 50% over the limit." In the past year our fishing industry and our lobster industry has dramatically declined, where now our neighbors are now out of work. In an article "Plum Island Sued Over Sewage" by the Suffolk Times dated May 7, 1998 stated, "Attorney General Vacco filed suite in the State Supreme Court in Riverhead demanding that Plum Island clean up it's act. It's pumped much more than allotted sewage into the Plum Island Gut since 1995. Mr. Vacco stated, "I take this situation very seriously and I'm determined to make sure the Fed's do too, these violations could have serious negative effective on fish on other life in the eastern Long Island Sound.""
 
Just this year the DEC issued another report dated July 14, 2000 stating that "During 1997 the PIADC Waste Water Treatment Plant experienced significant exceedances of its permit limits for several parameters. The most notable exceedances were for effluent temperature, influent flow, total coliform counts and per cent removal of organic material measured by biochemical oxygen demand." It also stated that "there were oil spills that have to be cleaned up and that PCB contaminated sediments to be removed from the treatment pools." "The source of the PCB's is unknown," according to Mark Lowery of the New York State Department of Environment Conservation who is the Regional Citizen Participation Specialist.
 
We have to write to our Congressman, and to the President to do something, anything. What are we waiting for the diseases to come into our backyard?
 
They have. Just remember this: We can not physically defend ourselves against
 
 
I can be reached at lightblubs@yahoo.com
 
 
ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822 Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 11:50:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Helise Flickstein <lightblubs@yahoo.com Subject: Plum Island Animal & Disease Center To: ARTISTpres@aol.com
 
Dear Robert Lederman:
 
I have been doing my own research on the Plum Island Animal & Disease Center. Here's what I wrote:
 
"CLONING & MORE ON PLUM ISLAND"
 
by, Helise Flickstein
 
Cloning? West Nile? Hurricane Bob? Employees contracting diseases? Upgrading to a Level 4? Sewage dumping into the Plum Gut? These are the questions and the answers I have been exploring for the past year because I am writing a screenplay about Plum Island. On another level I am also the mother of two small children of nineteen months and three years old, a former news reporter for TV-55, and a resident of the Township of Southold. I am concerned for the public's safety and for the employees that work there.
 
I had a 1 hour-long interview with Dr. David Huxsoll, Plum Island Animal and Disease Center's newest Director. When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about cloning on Plum Island? He said, "Were not doing much of cloning here right now. That doesn't mean we won't be cloning in the future. It would help with the development of the vaccines." Which means that they are in fact cloning. During my tour with Carlos Santoyos, Plum Island's Assistant Director, he took me by the old Fort Terry buildings. On one of the buildings itself there has a plaque with the title "Guinea Pig Colony". When I had asked Mr. Santoyos why is that particular building called that? He stated, "We use to clone guinea pigs here."
 
When I had asked Dr. Huxsoll about DNA sequencing, or Genomics being studied at Plum Island Animal and Disease Center? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are working on Genomics of some of the agents that we work with like Foot & Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever. Because we are interested in looking at the variability of one strain to another and what the genes that make up the organism are responsible for.
 
It is possible to tell by looking at one those (diseases) with sequencing and getting all those genes all lined up to separate which strain came from Africa versus which one comes from Asia."
 
I had asked Dr. Huxsoll what the current situation was with the sheep at Plum Island? He said that, "We currently have tissue samples." I also asked him do the people of Vermont realize that there is sheep with Madcow Disease up there? He said, "That's between the Department of Agriculture and the owner of the flock." What if people contracted Madcow Disease? Dr. Huxsoll stated, "It's a neurological illness that effects the brain. A person would develop neurological signs that could very tremendously interfere with locomotion, walking, and your normal activities. It could interfere with your mental capacity." These are the same sheep with diseases that they wanted to bring through our very own Township of Southold. What I found odd is that when I asked to be let into the lab area Dr. Huxsoll stated, "We are not letting anyone behind the barrier right now." A former employee, their name withheld, stated, "Plum Island regularly brings diseased animals to the island."
 
When I went to the February 2000, Township of Southold meeting, I stated my concerns about the following two articles. An article from the Suffolk Times, "P.I. 'Probably' Will Research AIDS" by Tim Gould, dated February 16, 1984, said, "In 1981 they were researching the African Swine fever in conjunction with the AIDS virus. Forty-seven employees were tested on and after the research. Six of the employees had contracted the African Swine Fever," which is not supposed to be a zoonotic disease. Zoonotic means a disease that is transferable to animals and humans. These are the types of diseases that they wish to study when they upgrade Plum Island to a level 4. According to Dr. Huxsoll, the disease that they will be studying is the "Nipha virus that effects pigs. It is a neurological disease that effects man. The legions look like a viral infection infiltration of the brain. It makes holes in the brain sort of like swiss cheese." He also stated, "Once we build the Level 4 facility, it will probably be connected to the Administrative building and building 101, which will remain at a Level Three." At the at Township of Southold, Dr. Lee Ann Thomas, then acting Director of Plum Island Animal and Disease Center, stated that, "We are handling diseases now that no one knows about already."
 
In an article from Newsday, "Safety at Animal Lab Questioned" by John McDonald, dated September 19, 1991. "During Hurricane Bob, Plum Island's power was out for eighteen hours and that their backup generator was down for three months prior." That means that their diseases were defrosting during for those 18 hours and that their negative air pressure, which keeps the diseases in, was not functioning and were essentially airborne.
 
There was also an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in 1978 where the entire island had to be evacuated and all of the animals were destroyed. According to Dr. Huxsoll, "there might have been a breakdown in engineering designs or maybe it was personnel."
 
What puzzled me was the recent emergence of foreign diseases in Manhattan and on Long Island itself within the past year. Isn't Plum Island's sole purpose to study foreign animals' diseases? Yes. Coincidental, I think not. According to Dominick Vinivaggi, Superintendent of the Division of Vector Control stated, that "1999's outbreak of the West Nile Encephalitis Virus where 66 people were hospitalized and the human death toll is now 8." From articles I found the Rift Valley Fever or West Nile was being studied at Plum Island since 1979. Let us not forget, "the Equestrian Encephalitis where 22 horses were infected 8 of which died in Jamesport just last year," according to Mr. Vinivaggi. According to an article from 1994, Dr.Breeze, then Plum Island's Director, stated that they have been studying Venezuelan Equine Encephalomyelitis. Let us also not forget about the two 11 year old boys that contracted Malaria at the Boy Scout Camp in Baiting Hollow just last summer. Dr. Huxsoll stated, "There seems to be a mosquito to bird transmission happening here. Maybe someone brought it back by plane." Personally I am not buying it.
 
I also spoke with Dr. Huxsoll about his past history as a United Nations Head Biological Inspector in Iraq. When I met with Dr. Huxsoll, I dared to ask what diseases were found in Iraq? Dr. Huxsoll said that during his trips to Iraq that "they definitely had a biological warfare program, they admitted that. We initially looked at a facility called Salmond Pack, which is near Baghdad. Most of their facilities are near Baghdad. At Salmond Pack were anthrax & bÈchalinum toxin and clostridium profricance. The first two I mentioned are diseases and the last one is an organism. I say that because an organism can cause some different kinds of diseases. We never associated that very much with a biological warfare program." According to a former employee, their name withheld, "The Army would come to Plum Island everytime a new disease was introduced."
 
According to Tom Sawicki, Safety Director at Plum Island, "There are 20 firefighters on call to date."
 
When I asked Tom Sawicki "How many firefighters are there at night?" His answer was, "To be honest with you there are only one or two on call." Then I asked, "If a fire had broken out at night and it had gotten to the point where this person could not handle it alone would the Orient Fire Department be called?" His answer was "No, his people would be contacted first, they are specially trained to handle anything on the island." I then asked, "How long would it take for his people to get there?" His answer was "To be quiet honest with you, it could take up to 45 minutes or longer to get there." Another words we are all doomed.
 
After speaking with former Union Head, Ed Hulriser, he told me that "employees had to be inoculated with unapproved FDA drugs to prevent them from contracting the diseases that they are handling, or they would be given menial jobs to perform on the island." When I had asked the Department of Agriculture at the Greenport meeting in November 1999, if this was true? Mrs. Wilda Martinez, Northeast Regional Director for the Department of Agriculture, stated that, "These allegations are unfounded." After the meeting Tom Sawicki himself came over to me and said, "Look, I'm inoculated with these drugs and I'm fine." But what he doesn't realize is that the government is using their own employees as human guinea pigs. Does he or anyone from Plum Island know what the long term side affects are from these drugs and/or vaccines?
 
How many times do we as taxpayers and members of a community have to be hit in the head? Diseases are real. Plum Island Animal and Disease Center is real. We as members of the community are ignoring it as we sit in our safe and secure little worlds. At the local and state level there is really no recourse of action against Plum Island being that it is a federally run facility they can do whatever they want and dump whatever they want into the Plum Island Gut and on the island itself. In 1998 the DEC's report stated that, "The PIADC was in violation of it's State Pollutant Discharge Emission System (SPDES) Permit. That permit allows PI to discharge 60,000 gallons of secondary treatment wastewater into the southern corner of Plum Gut, which showed that their daily discharge of 89,000 gallons was nearly 50% over the limit." In the past year our fishing industry and our lobster industry has dramatically declined, where now our neighbors are now out of work. In an article "Plum Island Sued Over Sewage" by the Suffolk Times dated May 7, 1998 stated, "Attorney General Vacco filed suite in the State Supreme Court in Riverhead demanding that Plum Island clean up it's act. It's pumped much more than allotted sewage into the Plum Island Gut since 1995. Mr. Vacco stated, "I take this situation very seriously and I'm determined to make sure the Fed's do too, these violations could have serious negative effective on fish on other life in the eastern Long Island Sound.""
 
Just this year the DEC issued another report dated July 14, 2000 stating that "During 1997 the PIADC Waste Water Treatment Plant experienced significant exceedances of its permit limits for several parameters. The most notable exceedances were for effluent temperature, influent flow, total coliform counts and per cent removal of organic material measured by biochemical oxygen demand." It also stated that "there were oil spills that have to be cleaned up and that PCB contaminated sediments to be removed from the treatment pools." "The source of the PCB's is unknown," according to Mark Lowery of the New York State Department of Environment Conservation who is the Regional Citizen Participation Specialist.
 
We have to write to our Congressman, and to the President to do something, anything. What are we waiting for the diseases to come into our backyard? They have. Just remember this: We can not physically defend ourselves against them.
 
 
I can be reached at lightblubs@yahoo.com
.

.
 
 
 
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