Officials admit postal anthrax blooper

The Trentonian ^ | 27 Oct 2001 | Dave Sommers & Jean Levine

[CedarDave]

I was thinking of a weak bleach solution in a spray bottle to spray mail (if this ever reaches NM). I used that to spray down fiberglass insulation I had to remove to get to well house piping/equipment to prevent exposure to hantavirus, which is 70-80% fatal to adults and carried by deermice.(I was previously responsible for nine wells for a community water supply system). As long as you know the dangers and take proper precautions, you're o.k. Of course, I had to perform non-routine maintenance on the well systems only once or twice a year; I receive mail daily. That's the difference and what scares people.

[CedarDave]

BTW, I went to your link to Defence Journal and clicked on their home page. Guess what?!

A monthly magazine dedicated to projecting the Armed Forces of Pakistan in their True Perspective.

Guess they're worried about the problem, too, from their own homegrown Islamic fanatics.

[sistergoldenhair]

Need to increase the concentration of household bleach. 1 part bleach to 9 parts water should be about right. It doesn't work immediately; several hours are needed.

[Fred25]

We’ve been using bleach for hantavirus where I live, but I’ve done a little research on anthrax, and it seems that just 3% hydrogen peroxide is effective to kill anthrax spores. Keep in mind that the danger of anthrax is not that it is difficult to kill, but that it contains a very powerful toxin if a person is infected while it is still alive.

I would use bleach on it too but bleach can ruin clothes, mail, and other stuff. Whenever we use bleach for hantavirus, we are usually spraying it around wood buildings and cardboard boxes in our garages and storage buildings. I live in a desert area, and we’ve got mice all over the place, outdoors. They try to come indoors in the winter.

I bought several bottles of hydrogen peroxide yesterday, and a small sprayer at Home Depot. The sprayer is like a garden sprayer type, but it’s very small and can turn the hydrogen peroxide into a mist.

Lysol is good for certain bacteria and viruses. I called the company that makes it, but they don’t know if it will kill anthrax, since they haven’t done any tests on anthrax.

[Fred25]

I didn’t notice that about Defense Journal. I think most people in Pakistan support us. I think there are other religions there other than Islam.

[sistergoldenhair]

I too have seen information that hydrogen peroxide is effective against anthrax. However, all the sources I have seen myself indicate it is effective only against the bacteria and not very effective against bacterial spores. I know peroxide is ineffective against the sporeformers I have dealt with. More agressive means are usually employed. Do you have a source document for the effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide on anthrax spores?

[Fred25]

Try a Google search for "anthrax spores hydrogen peroxide".

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

[Fred25]

I notice that Google is suddenly changing the links to some of the anthrax hydrogen peroxide caches, so some of my links might not work now. Now Google is advertising this.......

$2,799 office toaster oven

Beware of ripoff products.

[CedarDave]

Yikes!! It looks as if even hydrogen peroxide is ineffective against anthrax spores!! I sure hope the irradiation equipment the PO is thinking of installing will do the trick.

[Havisham]

In a rare move, I side completely with the NY Postal Union president on this one. The CDC are trained to identify vectors of infection and isolate points of origination. That's all they do. NYC mail processing should have been shut down weeks ago.

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

"But even is she got full blown anthrax, Zelda is in better shape than she would be with the common flu."

You are right about everything you said except this part. If left untreated the common flu is most likely to be contained by her immune system. If left untreated, full blown anthrax will kill her. We all know what happens when we call our family doctor and say we have the symptoms of the flu. He says, "take 2 asperin and drink fluids and wait it out". That is exactly what they will say this winter when we have the usual flu symptoms too. Zelda and the rest of us will not be told to come in for any testing and will NOT know if we have anthrax instead of the flu until it is too late to matter. That will be the delima and the scary part....... where to draw the line between being cautious and fanatical. I am not yet at all sure where the line is.

[Fred25]

No, I think it’s effective. I talked to a distributor of the Sandia formula, and he said the main anti-anthrax ingredient is hydrogen peroxide. The US Department of Energy contracted Sandia to come up with an all-round anti-bio-warfare agent, and their formula has been used to clean out NBC. Their contract called for them to develop something that wasn’t harmful to humans. Also, one of the articles said that the CDC was using hydrogen peroxide to clean out the media offices in Boca.

[MindBender26]

Actually not.

Flu in 75+ year olds is very dangerous. It is a virus and doctors can only treat symptoms, not disease itself.

Flu in a 50 year old is very survivable even without the typical asprin, contac, etc., but is a real issue with an older patient.

A typical 75 year old or older patient with flu, not just a cold but the real flu, (influenza) is seen as an acute care patient.