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California Mail Facilities Install Anthrax Detectors
California’s largest mail-handling facilities are installing anthrax detection devices, the Fremont, Calif., Argus newspaper reported yesterday (see GSN, April 10). A defense contractor has already installed the biodetectors on mail-processing machines in more than 40 postal centers in the Northeast United States and elsewhere. Full-time anthrax detection began last week inside a mail-processing plant in Oakland that houses 3,000 workers, according to the Argus. The plant is the first in California to receive the equipment. Centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and three other California cities are expected to soon follow. The system is designed to sniff the air around letters, then to pipe it into a spinning cone of water that traps germs and dust, filters them and injects them into a miniature DNA testing lab, according to the Argus. Once an hour inside the plastic cartridge, the DNA of airborne microorganisms are tested against two genetic signatures for virulent anthrax. These biodetectors can cost more than $100,000 each, according to the Argus, and the latest generation of devices can deliver a reliable diagnosis in 30 minutes. “In biology, nothing is ever black and white, and you always have to do a confirmation test,” said biochemist Cheg Widden, program director at Cepheid for GeneXpert, the DNA analyzer for the U.S. Postal Service. Testing has showed that the devices exceed agency expectations. “It’s greater than 99 percent confidence,” Widden said (Ian Hoffman, Freemont (Calif.) Argus, Oct. 5).
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