Biohazard Warning

A new report about a planned government bio-lab shows there is a high chance that an animal disease could escape, reports the Washington Post's Rob Stein. The Department of Homeland Security plans to build the lab — called the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility — in Manhattan, Kansas, to study animal diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease, which is "highly contagious," Stein says. A DHS assessment found that there is nearly a 70 percent chance that a disease could escape the lab in the 50 years it is slated to operate, but a new report from the National Research Council has found that the risks could be "significantly higher," Stein says.