Postal Service Prepared for Future Anthrax Attacks

The U.S. Postal Service has installed more than 1,000 biological agent detectors at its facilities since the 2001 anthrax mailings, a crime that the FBI says remains under intense investigation after five years without an arrest, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 29).

“We have fully deployed the fleet of biodetection systems” at 271 mail processing facilities, said Postal Service Vice President Tom Day.

The Postal Service spent $800 million to install the machines, and pays $70 million annually in operations costs.  That yearly amount is likely to reach $120 million.

A version of the biodetection system capable of scanning larger, flat parcels is expected to be deployed in 2007, Day said.

Scanners are designed to detect anthrax and two other biological agents, which Day would not identify, AP reported.

Most powder found seeping from a parcel is a harmless substance such as flour, baking powder or a crushed pill, Day said.  Leaking packages are often caused by the mailing of inappropriate items, such as animal body parts.

“They deep freeze them and, unfortunately, the dry ice is exhausted and we’ve had a number of cases where red liquid is oozing from the parcel,” Day said.

Detectors have screened roughly 60 billion parcels without false alarms.  No biological agents have been detected.  “That, you would have heard about,” Day said.

William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said many of his organization’s members feel more needs to be done to protect postal employees.  While the detection systems function well, not all mail goes through processing facilities.  Large business mailers, for example, drop off parcels directly for delivery.

Two postal workers in Washington, D.C., were among the five people killed in the anthrax attacks.  Seventeen FBI agents and 10 postal inspectors remain assigned to the investigation, AP reported.  More than 9,100 interviews have been conducted and more than 6,000 grand jury subpoenas issued.

The case “will be solved and the person or persons responsible will be brought to justice,” FBI Director Robert Mueller said last month (Schmid/Sniffen, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Oct. 3).

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