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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: CountofMoneyCristo who wrote (5824)10/17/2001 2:45:01 PM
From: Michael Watkins  Read Replies (2) of 281500
 
anthrax in every form is remarkably easy to "kill." In fact, many dangerous biological strains are already handled properly in the food industry. He stated that this process is not expensive or exceedingly complex. You would seal off an area, such as a mail room, then have all containers such as envelopes, packages, etc. placed on a conveyor belt which runs through a tunnel wherein all contents are irradiated, hit with doses of radiation which in effect "scramble" the DNA sequence of the bacteria or virus, rendering them non-lethal and completely harmless - "killed."

This is a safe and effective way of killing them off. This may become necessary for all luggage brought into the U.S. by travelers, all mail and all containers offloaded from ships. This is already being done on a large scale in the agricultural sector. I am told it would not be prohibitively expensive or a great nuisance - simply an adjustment.


Have you ever looked at a busy port and seen how many containers come in on a daily basis? I live near a major port -- Customs can barely even look inside them all - they probably do not.

From the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. International Waterborne Container Trade in Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) -- approximately 20 MILLION of them annually.

bts.gov

We don't have enough conveyors or little rooms for all of that ;)

It is not a simple problem, and the cost, and delay, would be significant. I've been saying all along that this Anthrax component of the attack is as much an economic one as it is for purposes of terror.
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