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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings
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To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (1920)10/9/2001 9:24:09 PM
From: CVJ  Read Replies (1) of 14610
 
Mrs. Peel,

It's just hard to imagine how you could "defend" against bio-terrorism through the mail.

I can imagine a potentially huge market developing for a Home BioWar Testing Kit based much on the same principle as the home pregnancy test kits that are available. If it is technically feasible in the first place, it might consist of several vials of liquid, or spray mists like the pocket-size aerosols, of various toxin-du-jour sensitive chemicals that would turn a certain color and indicate the relative amount of toxicity by color shade or speed with which it changes color if the particular toxin was present, like anthrax spores, etc. A small drop of liquid or a puff-spray of mist on the suspect letter, package or newspaper could identify the presence and relative strength of the toxin, or the absence of same.

Another way might be to incorporate a mass processing unit integrated with the high speed sorting machines in Post Office centers. A toxin or toxins sensitive chemical could be fog applied and inspected by ultraviolet light and/or lasers all at the same speed, or nearly so, of the present sorting machines. Surely it is a longer range solution for which the home test kit would have to fill in until mass testing became available.

Of course, imagination is one thing; creating and producing a real working product and widely distributing it at an affordable price and profitable cost in time to be of use, is a minor challenge I will leave to others. I only do concepts. :-)

Chas
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