LANSING, Mich. -- A Labor Day celebration in Lansing Sunday was followed by a protest against the U.S. military's anthrax vaccination program

About 40 people protested at the state Capitol shortly after a dedication ceremony was held at the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Demonstrators slammed the Defense Department and vaccine maker BioPort Corp. based in Lansing. BioPort is the only company in the nation that makes the anthrax vaccine.

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Protesters said BioPort and the Pentagon are ignoring signs of illness in troops who have been vaccinated. They also say the military has not done enough to investigate the vaccine's long-term effects, or to see whether the anthrax vaccine can be given safely with other vaccines.

Steve Robinson, a Gulf War veteran who now works for the National Gulf War Resource Center, said that Congressional testimony shows that there are many unanswered questions about the vaccine's effects. A 2000 federal report recommended ending the military's anthrax vaccine program after six hearings on the vaccine's effects, he said.

He and others suggested the vaccine could be connected to complaints of chronic fatigue, bone and joint pain, memory loss and other problems.

But Dr. Tom Waytes of BioPort said that there are 18 studies that indicate the vaccine is safe.

Waytes said that an independent panel of civilian physicians has reviewed each of the 1,623 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccine. The panel has found no pattern that suggests the vaccine causes more adverse reactions than any other vaccine, he said.

He also said hospital records show that troops who have been vaccinated are as healthy in the long term as people who haven't been vaccinated.

BioPort provides vaccines for government and commercial use. But repeated failures to meet Food and Drug Administration guidelines have prevented BioPort from making the anthrax vaccine for two years, Local First News reported. The firm failed inspections in 1999 and last year.

FDA inspectors have been monitoring the firm's preparedness efforts. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said earlier this month that BioPort could be providing vaccines to the military by Thanksgiving. He said that the lab had made improvements.

BioPort officials suggest it will take a little longer to get the vaccine on the market because of additional time needed for workers to prepare for production.

If given the go-ahead, the firm is expected to begin giving the vaccine to military personnel, lab workers and others who may have contact with the bacterium.

The Pentagon originally wanted to vaccinate 2.4 million troops, but cut that program short because of protests and because supplies of the vaccine ran low. About 500,000 troops have been vaccinated.