Japanese Firm Mishandles Deadly ‘Biological Warfare’ Toxin

Criminal pharma firm previously embroiled in HIV scandal

Japan’s health ministry is investigating the pharmaceutical firm Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute (aka, Kaketsuken) over its suspected mishandling of a potentially deadly toxin botulinum that can be used for biological warfare.

The botulinum toxin (BTX) is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and several other related species. It is also produced commercially for medical, cosmetic, and other uses. BTX is the most poisonous biological toxin known to science, natural or synthetic, and can cause a severe flaccid paralytic disease in humans and other mammals, with a lethal dose of as little as 1.3 nanogram per kilogram (ng/kg) in humans.

The firm was found to be in violation of the official transportation rules on at least four separate occasions since 2007, said the ministry spokesman.

HIV-contaminated blood products
Kaketsuken was illegally manufacturing blood products for about 40 years, while falsifying documents to allow it to take shortcuts.

“The company was sued in 1989 by HIV-infected hemophiliacs for receiving tainted products. The lawsuit wasn’t settled however until 1996, when both the government and the Kaketsuken-linked companies paid 45 million yen (370,000 U.S. dollars) to each plaintiff,” said a report.

“Kaketsuken’s malpractice caused 2,000 hemophiliacs to contract HIV from unheated blood products but their systematic falsification of documents continued long after the settlement, the panel found.

“Kaketsuken is one of Japan’s oldest manufacturers of blood products and vaccines.”

Bushfires Plague Australia

Wildfires consume thousand of acres, 15 homes in Victoria, Australia

About 900 firefighters responded to dozens of grass and bushfires across the state of Victoria on Sunday amid hot, dry and windy conditions from South Australia that pushed into New South Wales.

Extreme heat caused some of Victoria state’s worst fires burning out of control over the the weekend.

On Sunday, “more than 6,000 people in the Indigo Valley were texted emergency alerts when they were told it was too late to leave, and to instead take shelter.”

“[The fire] closed the Hume Freeway for hours, saw hundreds of cars backed up on the Hume Freeway, in 40 degree temperatures, not a nice place to be,” said Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner.

“[We had] multiple fires across the state but our fire crews did a fantastic job to pull up, we had the potential to have this morning many, many fires.”

A fire in Scotsburn killed more than a thousand sheep, five horses, 12 homes, 30 sheds and much of the fencing in the area, he said.

On Monday, dozens of warnings and alerts were in effect across the country including multiple fire warnings in New South Wales & ACT, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.