The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta
is the subject of a congressional investigation after a
potentially dangerous airflow leak at one of its labs. That lab
is a highly secured and sophisticated research lab where deadly
diseases such as bird flu, monkeypox, tuberculosis and rabies
are examined. Atlanta based network, CNN learned Friday that a
leak occurred on February 16, when air flowed the wrong way out
of a germ lab into a clean-air corridor, rather than through the
powerful HEPA filter that cleans the air. Visitors touring the
building were in the clean corridor when they saw a puff of air
being pushed out from the lab through a slot in a door window.
If experiments had been under way experts say unprotected people
could have been exposed to deadly germs. Small lab animals such
as rats, ferrets and mice as part of its experiments with
pathogens, according to CDC officials. They say animals in the
lab were secured in filtered cages. CDC officials say the lab
was clean, was not a