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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (7001)	10/23/2001 8:42:34 AM
From: RocketMan	Respond to of 281500

Based on what I am reading in the Washington Post, what was said was that the letter in question was extremely well-sealed, and the chance of catching anthrax was considered remote. Interesting the Post would say that. We've seen photos of the letter, and it doesn't look "extremely well-sealed" to me. I don't see any tape wrapping around the front of the letter, for example. Also, note how the envelope appears a bit puffed (though it might just be bent). I can understand how such a letter, if it went throuhgh rollers, could vent out some of its contents. cnn.com Even if it was a well-sealed letter, this is well short of what the NIH recommends for containing anthrax: Recommended Precautions: Biosafety Level 2 practices, containment equipment, and facilities are recommended for activities using clinical materials and diagnostic quantities of infectious cultures. bmbl.od.nih.gov Here's how Los Alamos handles mail delievery of anthrax: The samples Los Alamos would receive -- typically on the order of a teaspoon or less of material -- would be shipped by either the U.S. Postal Service or a commercial overnight service in a triple-containment package approved by the CDC and U.S. Department of Agriculture. lanl.gov It almost makes me want to be a lawyer handling this type of case, though I would hate to see any court case come out of this. I would much rather have us learn from this incident, use it to guide the handling of future cases, provide govt compensation to victim's families, and get on with finding the perpetrators. It's also good to remember that in this case we have two deaths, compared with hundreds in the Pentagon and thousands in NY, and each death is just as tragic of an event.