Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here. For years, plenty of wild rumors and
Speaker 1: fringe theories have swirled around an island the size of
Speaker 1: New York Central Park that rests a mile and a
Speaker 1: half about two and a half kilometers off of Long Island.
Speaker 1: Plumb Island is home to a high security federal research
Speaker 1: facility that Internet fueled urban legends have made into the
Speaker 1: East Coast's equivalent of Area fifty one. Some have speculated
Speaker 1: that animal human hybrids and biological warfare weapons are being
Speaker 1: developed inside the Plumb Island Animal Disease Center, opened by
Speaker 1: the U. S Department of Agriculture in the nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: and under the control of the U. S. Department of
Speaker 1: Homeland Security since two thousand three. John Verrico, a spokesman
Speaker 1: for Homeland Securities Science and Technology Directorate, said, I've had
Speaker 1: questions about Nazi scientists, alien technology, and genetically modified monsters.
Speaker 1: But inside these security fences and bio containment area checkpoints
Speaker 1: described in the unredacted parts of a two thousand seven
Speaker 1: government report, government researchers work to stave off more tangible
Speaker 1: threats foreign animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease
Speaker 1: and African swine fever, which have the potential to wreak
Speaker 1: havoc with the u S food supply if they ever
Speaker 1: spread across the nation's farms. In the US, which hasn't
Speaker 1: had an outbreak of foot and mouth disease since nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine, an outbreak of the highly contagious affliction could
Speaker 1: cause billions and billions of dollars in economic losses. Verka
Speaker 1: says because infected farm animals would have to be culled
Speaker 1: from the herds and destroyed, meat exports would come to
Speaker 1: a halt until the disease was eradicated, and consumers might
Speaker 1: face shortages of meat and dairy products. Farmers who produce
Speaker 1: animal feed would be harmed as well. A two one
Speaker 1: outbreak in the UK cost the nation the equivalent of
Speaker 1: more than ten billion dollars. That long standing danger led
Speaker 1: Congress to authorize the Department of Agriculture to create a
Speaker 1: laboratory to fight animal diseases back in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: with one major condition. The facility had to be located
Speaker 1: on an island to reduce the danger of pathogens or
Speaker 1: infected animals. Escaping and spreading to farms. Plumb Island, the
Speaker 1: site of the U. S Armies Fort Terry from eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy nine to night, fit that criteria. A nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: one New York Times article described the facility as a
Speaker 1: devil's island for the deadliest animal disease germs known to man,
Speaker 1: and described the elaborate security measures. Those included round the
Speaker 1: clock patrols along the island's perimeter intended to warn away
Speaker 1: voters who might be attracted by the pristine beaches, buildings
Speaker 1: with airlocks to keep bacteria and viruses from escaping, and
Speaker 1: holding tanks to sterilize the waste water from mandatory showers
Speaker 1: taken by staffers before leaving at the end of the
Speaker 1: work day. In part because of the risk of a
Speaker 1: terrorist attack on the facility, in two thousand three, it
Speaker 1: was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security, although agriculture
Speaker 1: researchers continue to work there with additional measures such as
Speaker 1: door sensors and alarms. And it's not for nothing. An
Speaker 1: Al Qaeda operative who was arrested in two thousand eight
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan had a handwritten list of various potential targets
Speaker 1: in the US that in aluded Plumb Island. Despite all
Speaker 1: the security measures, the Plumb Island Facility doesn't work in secrecy,
Speaker 1: Verico said, we actually don't do any classified work at all.
Speaker 1: Our scientists published reports on everything we do. Plumb Island
Speaker 1: houses the only Foot and Mouth disease vaccine bank in
Speaker 1: North America, which maintains and regularly updates a variety of
Speaker 1: vaccines that have been developed to combat the more than
Speaker 1: sixty different strains of the disease. Those vaccines could be
Speaker 1: deployed in the event that the disease began to spread
Speaker 1: in the US, Canada, or Mexico. Additionally, if an animal
Speaker 1: becomes sick and develops suspicious lesions or other possible signs
Speaker 1: of the disease, tissue samples can be sent to Plumb
Speaker 1: Island for analysis, and veterinarians come to Plumb Island for training.
Speaker 1: Work at the facility was instrumental in the conquest of
Speaker 1: render pest, a deadly cattle disease that is one of
Speaker 1: the only two diseases smallpox being the other that have
Speaker 1: been totally eradicated. Although the Plumb Island Facility and its
Speaker 1: four hundred person workforce have been an important part of
Speaker 1: the nation's defense is against animal diseases for decades. It's
Speaker 1: scheduled to shut down by approximately It gradually will be
Speaker 1: replaced by the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, at
Speaker 1: one point to five billion dollar project under construction in Manhattan, Kansas.
Speaker 1: That facility will be larger than Plum Island and be
Speaker 1: able to conduct more studies simultaneously. It will also have
Speaker 1: added layers of security to enable it to function as
Speaker 1: a level for laboratory, meaning that it will be able
Speaker 1: to study animal diseases that have the potential to be
Speaker 1: transmitted to humans. It will be the first large animal
Speaker 1: facility capable of such research advances, and security measures will
Speaker 1: make it unnecessary for it to be located off shore.
Speaker 1: What will happen to Plum Island after the Animal Disease
Speaker 1: Center shuts down isn't yet clear. The U. S. General
Speaker 1: Services Administration already has advertised the island in its buildings
Speaker 1: for sale, in keeping with provision tucked into the two
Speaker 1: thousand nine economic stimulus package that requires it to be
Speaker 1: auctioned off to defray the construction cost of the Kansas
Speaker 1: facility and or Homeland securities new headquarters complex, but local
Speaker 1: environmentalists don't want to see Plum Island turned into a
Speaker 1: waterfront housing development or golf resort. Because the island has
Speaker 1: been off limits to development for so many years, much
Speaker 1: of it has reverted to its natural state and has
Speaker 1: become a refuge for birds and animals. A group of
Speaker 1: environmental organizations in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, called
Speaker 1: the Preserve Plum Island Coalition, advocates setting aside eight percent
Speaker 1: of the island as a preserve in the winters. For example,
Speaker 1: Plum Island is a haven for six hundred harbor and
Speaker 1: gray seals who migrate from Canada to forge for food there.
Speaker 1: It also provides habitat for aviate species such as the
Speaker 1: piping plover and rosy it turn. After all, the security
Speaker 1: measures are meant to keep humans off the island, and
Speaker 1: keeping humans away is usually good news for animal populations.
Speaker 1: Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in twixteen seeking to prevent
Speaker 1: the government from going ahead with the sale on the
Speaker 1: grounds that it hadn't complied with requirements of various federal
Speaker 1: environmental laws. After the General Services Administration unsuccessfully sought to
Speaker 1: get the suit dismissed. The agency announced in August that
Speaker 1: it would hold off on the sale in order to
Speaker 1: prepare for a new environmental impact statement to augment a
Speaker 1: previous review that environmentalists had deemed inadequate. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang
Speaker 1: for iHeartMedia and How Stuff Works. For bondness and lots
Speaker 1: of other plum topics, visit our home planet, how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com.