Former CDC Contractor: Photos Reveal Bio-Safety Concerns
ATLANTA, Ga. -
A labor dispute raised questions about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta operates inside one of its most important buildings. And it's not a pretty sight.
The FOX 5 I-Team obtained dozens of photos and videos taken by a former worker inside Building 18, where the CDC handles deadly pathogens like anthrax and rabies. The pictures were from 2013 and 2014, but workers said they come across similar conditions even now.
One video depicted two sealed test tubes scattered on the floor in the "clean area" outside the viral diseases laboratories at the CDC. A worker said someone had moved a refrigerator... and apparently forgot about the two vials.
Jack Turner said they had been there for a couple of days. So he took out his camera. Once again.
"You can see vials just laying around, and nobody ever moved them or picked them up," the former CDC contractor told FOX 5 I-Team reporter Randy Travis. "One time we saw a big vial of blood. And that was really scary right there."
"Were you wearing any protective gear?"
"No, you don't wear protective gear when you go in to do service. Imagine if somebody had crushed it when they moved the freezer out of the way or somebody slipped and fell on it."
Jack Turner was not a scientist. He spent nearly 10 years working for Four Seasons Environmental, a company contracted by the CDC to change the light bulbs, fix the plumbing, monitor the heating and air conditioning. Keep the buildings running.
In 2015, Four Seasons workers at the CDC successfully voted to unionize, complaining of low pay and unsafe work conditions. The company appealed that vote and has refused to negotiate ever since.
So the union decided to bring their safety concerns to the FOX 5 I-Team.
"They don't know what everything is in there, but they've got sense enough to know that ain't right," stressed International Union of Operating Engineers Southern Region representative Joe Hinely.
Like a picture taken after Turner said Four Seasons workers unclogged a backed-up sewer line that had flooded some of the labs in Building 18. The pictures show lab materials -- called pipette tips -- had somehow gotten down a sewer drain.
We emailed the pictures to Dr. Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University molecular biologist who has testified before Congress about past CDC bio-safety mishaps.
"Pippette tips should NEVER be in a drain line," he pointed out. "All drains in all sinks in labs should have screens to prevent any solid matter of size from entering into the drain."
Four Seasons worker Jack Turner took more pictures. A secured door he said he found open. Blood he said left on a scale near the bio-waste incinerator. Silicone caulk around the gaskets of an autoclave, a machine used to sanitize any infected material from the high containment lab where scientists work on some of the most dangerous diseases like anthrax.
"Was it fixing some cosmetic damage or is this repairing a seal?" asked Dr. Ebright. "If this is repairing a seal, this is unacceptable even as a temporary repair."
Turner said the caulked autoclave had been that way for four years.
"Did you ever raise your hand and say hey! this isn't right?" asked Randy.
"Well, I mentioned it a couple of times and I was blowed off." He said it was finally repaired in late 2015, after the union had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information about the machine.
In recent years the CDC has had to explain some embarassing bio-safety mishaps. In 2014, some CDC employees in Building 18 were potentially exposed to live anthrax. They all quickly got preventive medication. So what about those guys who change the light bulbs? Four Seasons workers said they got their meds a week later, and only after they complained.
"It's like we're second class," complained Turner.
The CDC declined our offer to look at the pictures, saying the CDC must research dangerous germs in their labs and "the nature of this work means there will always be some risk involved. Keeping this risk to an absolute minimum is essential."
Four Seasons said it's investigating the circumstances surrounding the pictures but indicated "many of these items" were already addressed. The company "takes any issues regarding the safety of its people or those working on its Project site very seriously."
In January, Four Seasons Environmental fired Jack Turner, one of the main workers who led the union effort.
"What do you hope to accomplish by this interview?" asked Randy.
"I hope to accomplish is the CDC can get their act together," Turner replied.
Critics want something more.
"One can't maintain agents securely with open doors, tubes lying on the ground, material being deposited into drain lines," argued Dr. Ebright. "(It makes a) very strong argument for reassigning that responsibility for oversight of the safety and biosecurity to an independent agency. And these photos just strengthen that argument."