Emphasizing the need for increased mail security post-Sept. 11, Henry L. Maury, director of mail communication policy, addressed the National Postal Forum Tuesday afternoon at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.
Speaking to a crowd of more than 100 federal, state and local employees, Maury outlined new guidelines that specify how anthrax threats should be handled.
Last fall 22 cases of anthrax infection were reported in the US, all of which were ultimately tied to contaminated mail. According to the Center for Disease Control, anthrax is not detectable by smell, taste or color and cannot be destroyed by heat or ultraviolet light.
The new guidelines were published July 22 after a rash of anthrax threats forced the postal service to reevaluate its internal security.
At the suspicion of anthrax, the new guidelines call for a “first responder,” such as police, FBI or biological experts to verify the risk. The response to the threat must then be an integrated effort between police, mail employees, the FBI, and laboratories conducting anthrax testing. The testing must be done using microbial cultures in a laboratory, not hand-held on-site tests as were previously recommended. Such tests have become notorious for producing false positives, Maury said.
Lastly, he urged against routine sampling and testing of mail centers.
“You’re likely to cause panic and you run the risk of ruining evidence,” Maury said. But, he added, “it seemed like a good idea at the time [after the initial anthrax threat].”
Michael Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, a private mail solutions company and a sponsor of the National Postal Forum, said despite the installation of expensive X-ray and irradiation machines at some high-volume facilities, the mail industry has not been adversely affected by last fall’s anthrax scares.
“9-11 was a short-term setback,” he said. According to Critelli, the U.S. Postal Service income actually exceeded expectations last quarter.
“Commercial and residential customers are getting the same mail service as before Sept.11,” he said.