Officials delay research paper

WASHINGTON – The National Academy of Sciences has delayed publication of a research paper at the request of the Health and Human Services Department over concern the material might be useful to terrorists.

The paper, assessing the vulnerability of the dairy industry to bioterror and recommending preventative steps, was set for publication in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 30.

In a letter, Stewart Simonson, assistant secretary of HHS, charged that the paper was a “road map for terrorists.”

Simonson said the paper provided too much detail on potentially vulnerable areas of milk supply, processing and distribution, saying its publication “could have very serious health and national security consequences.”

It was submitted by Lawrence Wein and Yifan Liu of Stanford University.