-Caveat Lector-
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 01:18:22 +1300
From: Misty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: SNET: Mail irradiated for anthrax often damaged, recipients say
To: SNET <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Armageddon or New Age? <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mail zapped for anthrax often damaged, recipients say
By Eunice Moscoso / Cox News Service
01-27-02
http://www.coxnews.com/newsservice/stories/2002/0127-MAIL.html
WASHINGTON -- Eliza Gilligan is deeply concerned about electron beams.
The radiation, used to kill potential anthrax in the mail, has not been kind
to some of the things she values most, such as books, letters and
periodicals.
"It's a very destructive process," said Gilligan, a book conservator with
the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
Several pieces of decontaminated mail sit in her office -- books with
yellow, brittle pages, some with pages stuck together because of melted ink
and others with binding undone and pages fallen out.
"A lot of these books, you just can't fix," she said. "It breaks down the
chemical structure of paper fibers. . . . There's nothing you can do to
reverse that."
Gilligan isn't the only one alarmed. Researchers, curators, retailers and
ordinary citizens are all seeing unintended effects of the mail irradiation
process, which began last fall after four anthrax-filled letters were mailed
to New York and Washington. Investigators believe the bacteria killed five
people, including two postal workers.
Now, mail addressed to several Washington-area ZIP codes is routed through
an irradiation facility run by Titan Industries in Lima, Ohio, or one run by
Ion Beam Applications in Bridgeport, N.J.
Conveyor belts move the mail into sealed chambers where linear accelerators
bombard it with beams of high-energy electrons, killing any bacteria.
With the anthrax culprit still at large, the U.S. Postal Service is planning
to expand the irradiation process.
The service has contracts to purchase eight more irradiation machines and
has an option to buy 12 more. It hasn't decided where to put them, said
spokesman Gerry Kreienkamp. "It will be other places, outside the D.C.
area," he said.
The spread of irradiated mail unsettles more than just book lovers.
Private companies who mail a variety of products to consumers are also
concerned.
Medicines subjected to radiation could become ineffective and possibly
harmful, especially when it comes to biological products such as vaccines,
said Jeff Trewjitt, spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America.
Computer disks can become warped and lose data. An electronics industry
group reported earlier this month that tests showed flash memory cards and
other digital devices were harmed by the electron beams.
The Gemological Institute of America also tested different items, and found
that the potential impact of irradiation "is obviously a major concern,"
said William Boyajian, its president.
The institute found that most gems change color after irradiation. White
cultured pearls turned gray, pale blue sapphires turned yellowish orange,
and pink kunzite turned green.
Kreienkamp said the Postal Service knows that some mail is adversely
affected by the decontamination process, but says much of it is not.
In his own Washington office, some letters have been yellowed and some are
perfectly white, he said.
In addition, the Postal Service is researching the best way to minimize the
impact while still neutralizing biological agents, he said.
"We're trying to work on those issues as best we can," he said. "It's a
learning process."
But Kreienkamp also said the Postal Service must do its job.
"The government has told us they want their mail sanitized," he said. "The
only process we have to do that at this point is irradiation."
In light of that fact, government offices are making adjustments.
The Smithsonian library system, with 22 branches and 1.5 million volumes,
has limited the lending of books between Washington branches and those in
other areas in fear of destroying important materials. In addition, any
loaned materials must be returned to Washington by Federal Express or UPS.
Gilligan said many rare items are of particular concern. These include
microfilm that holds genealogy records and scientific samples and slides,
shared by Smithsonian researchers and scientists across the country.
Hoping to find a solution to the irradiation dilemma, Smithsonian officials
will meet with the Postal Service this week.
"We're trying to come up with strategies to get around this," Gilligan said.
Other government workers are also searching for alternatives. Some are
having documents mailed to their homes in the suburbs outside of Washington
to avoid irradiation, while the National Park Service, in an e-mail sent to
field offices this month, strongly recommends "an alternative shipper" for
sending nominations for the National Register of Historic Places.
While government workers are finding ways to avoid the irradiated mail,
stamp collectors can't wait to get their hands on it.
The damaged mail is part of a genre known as "disinfected mail," which dates
back to the time people tried to fumigate letters to kill yellow fever and
other diseases, said Kim Kowalczyk of the American Philatelic Society.
Previous attempts at sanitizing mail included poking it with holes, baking
it, and soaking it in vinegar, she said.
Recently irradiated mail is already for sale on the Internet auction site
eBay.
The seller of one item, with a high bid of $6.77, tried to encourage buyers
with a written pitch: "Now's your chance to pick up your own physical piece
of history."
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