Postal Service Looks to Sterilize Mail
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The agency has purchased up to 20 electron irradiation machines from San Diego-based Titan Corp. in a contract worth nearly $40 million, USA Today reported. The contract ensures delivery of at least eight machines, with an option to buy 12 more, the paper said.
The machines direct the high intensity energy at letters; the beam breaks down the DNA of the anthrax bacteria and kills it. The process is currently used to sterilize items like medical equipment, company sources said.
A Titan Corp. subsidiary SureBeam Corp. will provide the sterilization systems.
"The entire SureBeam team is proud to be able to be part of addressing this urgent national priority and in helping to protect against biological terrorism," said SureBeam's President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Oberkfell.
A company spokesman said that the equipment being sold to the USPS can irradiate 20 tons of hamburger in 90 minutes, USA Today reported.
News of the contract comes after another postal worker in New Jersey has been diagnosed with the inhalation form of anthrax.
The Associated Press now reports the tally of those impacted by the anthrax mailings at 13. Three individuals have died, and now five people have been shown to have the deadly inhaled anthrax. Six people have the less serious cutaneous or skin anthrax.
The list of federal agencies in the Washington area that have shown traces of the bacteria has grown to include an off-site facility of the Justice Department, the AP reported.
Currently, tests have shown the presence of anthrax at off site mail handling facilities for the Justice and State Departments, the Supreme Court, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the White House, as well as at several Congressional buildings.
The widening scope of the infections has led some officials to speculate that there may be undiscovered infected letters still in circulation, news services reported.
Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the chances of all the cases of anthrax in the Washington area being caused by the one letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle were astronomical.
On the treatment front, medical officials are now replacing Cipro with another antibiotic – doxycycline, as the drug of choice for treating anthrax, Reuters reported.
The U.S. Postal Service has begun receiving millions of masks and gloves for its workers in an effort to reassure them about the safety of their jobs and help stop the spread of anthrax infections.
(Click here for the full press release.)
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