ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, February 3, 1997               TAG: 9702040043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: Associated Press

BRITAIN STUDIED GERM WARFARE

DURING THE COLD WAR, bacteria were released over London and southern England, officials say.

Britain conducted secret germ warfare experiments over London and southern England during the Cold War, the government confirmed Sunday.

Scientists tested three bacteria, which the government said were ``completely harmless,'' in rural and inner city areas between 1964 and 1977.

``They were bacteria that would act in a similar way to a true biological agent,'' said Rupert Cazelet, spokesman for the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency, which is responsible for Britain's biological defense establishment.

``But they were harmless, and they were made further harmless by being denatured or killed,'' he said. ``We were looking to see how they were dispersed and how the air currents carried them around. We were not looking to infect people, absolutely not.''

Defense Secretary Michael Portillo confirmed that the experiments had taken place in a letter to opposition Labor Party lawmaker Ken Livingstone, which was quoted in The Sunday Telegraph.

Portillo said the experiments were designed to ``determine the effect of environmental conditions on the viability of organisms.'' He stressed that the agents presented ``no risk to public health.''

The scientists used three bacteria: bacillus globigii, killed serratia marcescens, and E. Coli 162.

The Sunday Telegraph quoted several doctors as saying the three types of bacteria could cause infection or illness, but Cazelet stressed that the bacteria used had been rendered harmless.

Livingstone called Sunday for an independent inquiry to follow up on what had happened to Londoners exposed to the agents.

``They're guessing when they say no one was affected and I'm guessing that people were affected,'' he said.

In the United States, two naval ships steamed up and down outside the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in 1950 spraying bacillus globigii and serratia marcescens, the newspaper said. Almost all of the city's 800,000 residents were exposed, it said.

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