Universal Detection Technology Analysis of the Cost of Bioterror False Alarms
Marketwire
Posted: 2009-03-16 07:00:00
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/16/09 -- Universal Detection Technology (www.udetection.com) (OTCBB: UNDT), a developer of early-warning monitoring technologies to protect people from bioterrorism and other infectious health threats and provider of counter-terrorism consulting and training services, issued an analysis of the increasing cost of Bioterror false alarms and hoaxes involving white powder mailings. In the past two fiscal years, records show, U.S. postal inspectors responded to more than 5,800 reports of letters and packages containing suspicious substances.
In the 7 1/2 years since America's worst bioterror attack -- when letters laced with anthrax spores killed five people, closed Congress and the Supreme Court and crippled mail service for months -- U.S. agencies have spent more than $50 billion to beef up biological defenses. However, a flood of hoaxes and false alarms have raised the cost considerably through lost work, evacuations, decontamination efforts, first responders' time and the emotional distress of the victims. That, experts say, is often the hoaxsters' goal.
"It's easy, it's cheap and very few perpetrators get caught," said Leonard Cole, a political scientist at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., who studies bioterrorism. "People do it for a sense of power."
Among the recent targets:
-- Nearly all 50 governors' offices
-- About 100 U.S. embassies
-- 52 banks
-- 36 news organizations
-- Ticket booths at Disneyland
-- Mormon temples in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles
UNDT's 5-agent detection kits have been extensively used by first responders and private industry throughout the country. The kits are the first line of defense in a "white powder scare" situation. The kits notify the user of the presence of bio agents such as anthrax, botulinum and ricin in as little as three minutes. UNDT's BSM-2000 system is an autonomous airborne detector of bacterial spores. The system samples the ambient air and can notify a first responder of elevated levels of bacterial spores which is a typical signature of an airborne anthrax attack.
The Company recently received a purchase order for its equipment from the Miami-Dade Police Department.
"Our test kits assist first responders and private industry to identify suspicious powders quickly and safely," said Mr. Jacques Tizabi, UNDT's Chief Executive Officer. "This method is the most effective way of treating and mitigating the increased number of hoaxes," he added.
For more information, please visit our website at www.udetection.com or
Email us at info@udetection.com. |
