Bioterrorism: A potential weapon for terrorist attacks through food and water contamination: Evolution of our understanding of the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons

Abstract

Bioterrorism is possibly an even older phenomenon than the relatively recent "military-type" attempts, culminating in the 9/11 attacks to the New York Twin Towers, and which have skyrocketed into a worldwide series of true war like destructions. These situations range from those by individuals who usually give up their lives in the attempts, to the true military operations, such as those, which almost daily make countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines to mention only a few. There are many differences between the two types of terrorism, and they will be discussed in detail. One of the most obvious is primary target, which in the case of the use of explosive in many different forms has as the main target man, while bioterrorism is aimed at man in a much more indirect form, targeting man through hitting his food supplies, such as his animals, the waters he drinks and so on. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.