The Hart Senate Office Building appears to be free of anthrax, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 18).  Meanwhile, few U.S. postal workers have chosen to undergo anthrax vaccination as a post-exposure treatment, according to reports (see GSN, Dec. 12).

EPA officials said that although they were waiting for confirmation from laboratory tests, preliminary data from monitoring equipment indicated that a second attempt to fumigate the Hart building with chlorine dioxide gas successfully killed remaining spores.

“We feel very comfortable that we had a very successful fumigation,” said Richard Rupert, the EPA on-site coordinator.  “We feel that based on the humidity numbers, the temperature and the concentration of chlorine dioxide, we were able to effectively destroy any anthrax spores.”

Officials are waiting for the results, which may be available later this week, of two types of tests, according to the Associated Press.  One test used more than 400 test strips laced with bacteria that is more resistant than anthrax to chlorine dioxide gas.  The strips were placed throughout the building and if the bacteria on them are found dead, it is likely that any remaining anthrax was killed as well.  Another round of tests will check samples taken by swabbing and vacuuming various surfaces in the building (Larry Margasak, Associated Press/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 2). 

Vaccine Goes Unwanted

Only six Washington postal workers last week underwent anthrax vaccination as a post-exposure treatment, according to the Washington Times.  Hundreds were eligible, but most either refused treatment or were still making a decision.  “I don’t want to feel like a lab rat,” said letter carrier Bennie Barnett.  “They’re not sure what it’s going to do.”

“One of my co-workers got sick just from taking [anthrax antibiotics],” said letter carrier Robert Johnson.  “His face blew up.  He got red and got spots on his face.  No telling what that needle is going to do to you.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a team to Washington to inform postal workers about the vaccine and to administer inoculations if they were requested.  The CDC team plans to stay in Washington until Jan. 7, the Times reported.  Similar CDC teams traveled to Florida, New York and New Jersey.

To protect against any latent anthrax spores still in the body after their antibiotic regimens expire, postal workers are eligible to take either the vaccine or another round of antibiotics.  “CDC doesn’t recommend one over the other,” said CDC spokeswoman Sandra Smith.  “We want to offer people the choice.”

Smith said she was not surprised that so few eligible people decided to be inoculated.  “That’s to be expected,” Smith said.  “It’s a big decision.  People need some time to think about it” (Tom Ramstack, Washington Times, Dec. 28).

Utah May Recreate Oversight Panel

Utah Governor Mike Leavitt said he was open to the idea of recreating an oversight panel for the Dugway Proving Ground after reports that the U.S. Army facility produced small amounts of weaponized anthrax, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday (see GSN, Dec. 17).

In 1998, then-Governor Norm Bangerter and Representative Jim Hansen (R-Utah) created the Technical Review Committee for Dugway Testing to oversee the facility after the army planned to increase biological weapons defense testing, according to the Tribune.  “We were just trying to make sure the feds were dealing straight with us,” Bangerter said.  “We were always trying to know what was going on out there.”

Soon after the committee was created, the army stopped plans to build a Biosafety Level 4 facility at Dugway, which would have been capable of testing microbes for which there are no known treatments, the Tribune reported.  The committee also helped force Dugway to answer the Utah medical community’s questions about the lack of civilian preparedness in the event of an accident.

After the Gulf War in 1991, relations between Dugway and the committee became strained, as Dugway was less open with information, said Suzanne Winters, Gov. Leavitt’s former science adviser.

“If you didn’t ask exactly the right questions, you never got a straight answer,” Winters said.  “I never had the comfort level or communication level at Dugway that I developed over time at Tooele.”  Tooele is the Army’s chemical weapons incinerator south of Tooele, Utah.

Leavitt disbanded the committee on Winters’ advice, according to the Tribune. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a microbiologist at New York State University, said Leavitt should form a new oversight committee for Dugway.  “There ought to be such a group and I would hope the governor would want to make it a permanent thing,” Rosenberg said.  “Secrecy is corrosive.  The more open [the army] can be, the better off they will be” (Brent Israelsen, Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 1). 

South Korea Military Will Stockpile Vaccine

The South Korean military has decided to buy enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate 10,000 soldiers, a military source told Yonhap last week.  “The forces’ main tasks has budgeted [$1.5 million] for purchasing the vaccines,” he said.  South Korean military leaders have also budgeted about $17 million for anti-chemical weapons measures to be implemented next year, the source said (Seoul Yonhap, Dec. 30, in FBIS-LAT, Dec. 30).

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