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Saturday, October 06, 2007  
Livermore Lab Fined for Mailing Anthrax Vials

By: Jason Kobely, Internet News Producer
Published In: News 10 ABC

LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been fined $450,000 after a federal agency found that a former scientist sent two open vials of anthrax across the country two years ago.



The Department of Transportation found that the employee lacked proper credentials when she sent a shipment with more than 1,000 vials of the deadly pathogen to a laboratory in Palm Beach, Florida.



The scientist resigned from her job after the incident.



Two workers at the Florida lab may have been exposed when the anthrax shipment was opened without proper precautions. They were treated with antibiotics before returning to work.



A lab spokeswoman said all anthrax-related research was halted for seven months after the 2005 shipments, and the facility has since set up an oversight system as well as new training and

procedures.



Marylia Kelley, who lives near the lab and heads the citizen group Tri-Valley CAREs, says the incidents illustrate the dangers the facility poses to the community.




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