The U.S. Postal Service said yesterday they plan to test mail processing centers along the East Coast for anthrax, as well as begin purchasing devices that would sanitize mail before it reached recipients.

The mail processing centers to be tested for anthrax include nine in New York and New Jersey, which are believed to be part of a chain that handled anthrax tainted letters sent to NBC News and the New York Post, according to USA Today.  “They believe infected mail went through these facilities,” said Jeff Perry, a mail handler’s union president in New York (USA Today, Oct. 25).

The Postal Service also said yesterday it would buy devices designed to kill anthrax in mail through the use of powerful beams of high energy electrons.  Ion beam sterilization is already in use in the food and medical-device industries.  The machines will be installed first in sites where there are clear threats of encountering tainted mail, said Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan.  “This appears to be the best way to eliminate contaminants from the mail,” said Brennan.

Ion beam systems were chosen because they could be retrofitted for mail centers and because the Postal Service believes they are safe for workers and customers, said Brennan.  It could take months to get equipment designed for food and medical industries deployed in mailrooms and U.S. mail centers and the initial investments would run into the tens of thousands of dollars for the smallest systems, according to experts.  The Postal Service said that its first purchases of the new systems would come out of a recently approved $200 million security fund.  The costs could run into the billions of dollars if the systems are eventually installed into all of the more than 300 U.S. regional mail centers, according to the New York Times.

Sterilization machinery would be harmless to most letters, but in some cases could damage computer disks and other electronics and discolor photographs, according to the Times.  Some of the systems could pose environmental challenges that would add to the costs.

“It’s a relatively specialized field administered by people with lots of training,’ said A.E. May, sales director for Anderson Products, a company that produces sterilization equipment.  “It’s a very sensitive time to be in this field.  You want to help but you’ve got to be very frank about the limitations” (Feder/Revkin, New York Times, Oct. 25).

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