  Let $B$ and $F=\frac 12F_{\mu \nu}dx^\mu \wedge dx^\nu $ be two forms,
$F_{\mu \nu}$ being the field strength of an abelian connection $A$. The
topological $BF$ system is given by the integral of $B\wedge F$. With "kinetic
energy'' terms added for $B$ and $A$, it generates a mass for $A$ thereby
suggesting an alternative to the Higgs mechanism, and also gives the London
equations. The $BF$ action, being the large length and time scale limit of this
augmented action, is thus of physical interest. In earlier work, it has been
studied on spatial manifold $\Sigma $ with boundaries $\partial \Sigma $, and
the existence of edge states localised at $\partial \Sigma $ has been
established. They are analogous to the conformal family of edge states to be
found in a Chern-Simons theory in a disc. Here we introduce charges and
vortices (thin flux tubes) as sources in the $BF$ system and show that they
acquire an infinite number of spin excitations due to renormalization, just as
a charge coupled to a Chern-Simons potential acquires a conformal family of
spin excitations. For a vortex, these spins are transverse and attached to each
of its points, so that it resembles a ribbon. Vertex operators for the creatin
of these sources are constructed and interpreted in terms of a Wilson integral
involving $A$ and a similar integral involving $B$. The standard
spin-statistics theorem is proved for this sources. A new spin-statistics
theorem, showing the equality of the ``interchange'' of two identical vortex
loops and $2\pi $ rotation of the transverse spins of a constituent vortex, is
established. Aharonov-Bohm interactions of charges and vortices are studied.
The existence of topologically nontrivial vortex spins is pointed out and their
vertex
