Word: botulinus
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BIOLOGICAL These are the inspectors' biggest worry right now. Before the Gulf War the Iraqis had a secret germ-weapon program that brewed up and tested huge quantities of several lethal agents, including 8,500 liters of anthrax, 19,000 liters of botulinus and 2,500 liters of aflatoxin. (That's theoretically enough to kill everyone on earth.) They had "weaponized" them by loading them into bombs and missile warheads. Iraq claims it unilaterally destroyed all those weapons after the war, but has never offered proof. U.N. inspectors have been checking more than 80 suspected areas for clandestine storage...
...Americans have had their blepharospasm symptoms eased by an experimental drug called Oculinum. But now nationwide testing has been halted because the manufacturer says he is no longer able to find an insurance company that will sell him affordable liability coverage. Apparent reason: Oculinum is made from botulinus toxin, the deadly bacterial poison that causes botulism...
...consider the probability that an inadvertently produced harmful organism might cause a laboratory infection, and let us assume the worst case: an E.coli strain producing a potent toxin absorbable from the gut, such a botulinus toxin. Such a strain would indeed present a real danger of laboratory infection. But there are a number of reasons to expect this danger to be less than that with the pathogens that are handled every day by medical bacteriologists...
...watchdogs and spoken of in whispers as "the most secret chemical-warfare establishment in this hemisphere." The chief security officer has been murdered. Dr. Baxter is missing. Dr. Oster is a marked man. Worst of all, some crucial flasks have been pilfered from E Lab. Several contain enough botulinus toxin to wipe out the entire population of Los Angeles. One flask, warns Research Scientist Hoffman (Richard Basehart) is brimful of the "satan bug," a biological doomsday weapon that can launch death on a global scale. In this unpersuasive sci-fi thriller directed by John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock...
...comely daughter (Anne Francis), as Bug's resident bunny, does what she can to assist former U.S. Intelligence Officer George Maharis, whose ticklish assignment is to save the world. Before Maharis can track down the crazed millionaire behind the bacilli scare, Florida has been decimated by botulinus. Maharis endures sundry perils prior to a climactic wrestling match in a helicopter high above Los Angeles, and the bulk of mankind survives to enjoy movies like The Satan Bug. Just harmless formula stuff, actually. The effects wear off before the film is half over...