Post office weighs how to 'treat' the mail

WASHINGTON

Concerns that anthrax could spread through the US postal system have officials rushing to evaluate several powerful options for improving the safety of the nation's mail.

But the task of safeguarding the mail - and the workers who handle it - is likely to remain the purview of government. Zapping letters with high-level radiation at the post office, for instance, would help. Putting them in a microwave at home wouldn't.

For individuals waiting and wondering what to do, the best thing, experts say, is to keep perspective on the crisis - on the fact that the anthrax attacks are aimed at high-profile people and places, including the White House. They're not targeted at the general public.

Even the risk of "collateral mail" - anthrax-tainted letters contaminating other mail - appears slight.

"If you're a mail handler in a mail room, maybe wear gloves and a surgical mask," says John Clements, an immunologist at Tulane University in New Orleans. The reality is that anthrax "is a very poor weapon that's very good at spreading terror." He adds, "the antidote to terror is information."

Authorities say 44 people have been exposed to anthrax nationwide since Sept. 11. Of those, 12 have tested positive for infection. Three of the 12 have died. As a precaution, several thousand postal workers in Washington and New Jersey are taking medication amid concern about exposure in postal facilities. Several such locations have been temporarily closed.

Overall, anthrax has been found in or en route to four (possibly five) media outlets, Capitol Hill, and the White House. Bush administration officials say that a machine at a remote mail-sorting facility tested positive for anthrax, but that the White House itself is safe. President Bush also promised $175 million in new spending to boost mail safety.

Postmaster General John Potter has announced plans to use new machines to decontaminate the mail. He expects delivery of the units to begin Nov. 1.

Postcards are set to arrive in every US household this week with tips for personal protection, including washing hands in case of handling suspicious mail. While such simple steps could be useful, experts advise individuals to keep two things in mind:

First, the perpetrators probably don't have very much anthrax, so they're sending it to high-value, high-profile targets. "Are they really going to send it to John Q. Public on Lovely Lane?" asks Dr. Clements.

Second, even "collateral mail" is unlikely to cause a major problem. To contract anthrax by inhaling it requires breathing in 5,000 to 8,000 spores, Dr. Clements says. Even if a contaminated letter brushed against an uncontaminated one, it's not likely to pass along many spores. Still, he acknowledges, a few spores could stick. That's why washing hands - or wearing gloves - may be useful. And in the wake of the exposures of postal workers, officials are reassessing the research that came up with the 5,000-spore minimum, noting that it was done decades ago - on monkeys. Human response to anthrax exposure, some warn, could be different.

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