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[GWL]: Chemical Sanitizing of the Mail

I've been following this story carefully and consulting with old sources in
various industries.  The consensus is that irradiation of the mail is very
costly, probably prohibitive.  See this breaking story on AP for details:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/011026/10/news-attack-anthrax-irradiation-dc

In my humble opinion, as a former newspaper reporter who covered politicians
including George W and Tom DeLay, the initial noise about the need for
cobalt gamma ray irradiation was to stir up the political atmosphere.
Emergency appropriations were made yesterday for the postal service.  The
more money you say you must have or people will die, the more generous
Congress gets.

There are chemical sanitation systems already in place in the food industry
that are applicable for sanitizing mail.  The Postal Service is exploring
them.  These systems use a mist or fog to saturate mail--it gets inside
envelopes and into every nook and cranny.  The chemical fogged is usually
carbolic acid--the stuff in mouthwash that kills all the bacteria in your
mouth.  It's also an excellent antiseptic.  10 percent chlorine bleach
solution also kills anthrax spores (and AIDS virus), but it affects inks.
Bleach is what is being used, along with carbolic acid, to sanitize affected
buildings, by the way.  Chemical fogging systems are readily available, much
cheaper than gamma rays and can be in place in hot spot post offices within
a week to 10 days.  I believe this is what the US Postal Service will do.
But, I think that many government agencies and the White House will choose
to install the costly gamma ray systems.  Heck, we taxpayers can afford it!
Doreen Howard

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