Despite fierce opposition, the National Academy of Sciences has published a report which says the U.S. milk supply is vulnerable to being poisoned with botulinum toxin.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had argued that the information might instruct would-be attackers.
The report by Lawrence Wein and Yifan Liu of California's Stanford University, outlines one way a small amount of the paralyzing poison could make as many as 500,000 people ill, and it recommends measures, such as better pasteurization and careful sampling, to reduce the threat.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences had originally scheduled publication of the paper in late May, but withdrew its embargoed release to reporters after the HHS objected.
This was an unusual move and the academy recommended that this be a test case for a debate over whether studies that could pertain to biological or chemical warfare be classified in the way studies related to nuclear weapons often are.
The academy, which is an independent body that advises the federal government on scientific and medical matters, met with officials to discuss concerns.
Academy president Bruce Alberts wrote in a commentary, that following the meeting, the Council of the National Academy of Sciences decided to publish the article as originally accepted, and accompanied it with an editorial to clarify their reasons for doing so.
Alberts argued that all of the information in the analysis was easily available on the Internet and open publication and debate can make the nation safer.
He added that because scientific advances are made through the combination of knowledge in unexpected ways, the discoveries of each individual scientist should be made available to a wide variety of other scientists, who can then either build upon or criticize them.
Christina Pearson of the Department of Health and Human Services says the department hotly disagrees and say they are concerned that if the academy is wrong, the consequences could be dire.