Joseph Curseen
Thomas Morris
Anthrax News and Links
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Joseph Curseen |
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Thomas Morris |
11/8/01 - The US Postal Service went back to court today to get the Bellmawr P&DC reopened. An agreement was reached with the Postal Service and the APWU and approved by the judge to reopen the building tonight at 9:00. The agreement calls for the continual testing of the facility over the next year.
11/7/01 - The APWU has won an injunction in Federal Court forcing the Postal Service to close the Bellmawr P&DC until it can be proven to be clean and free of any anthrax. It will close at 9:00 tonight and will not reopen until at least Tuesday when testing should be completed.
11/7/01 - The Bellmawr plant is once again open. However, the APWU is recommending to their members, not to report for work until the building is tested again and all of the results come back to show the building to be safe.
11/6/01 - The Bellmawr P&DC was closed again tonight. Apparently, when they decontaminated the machine, they decontaminated the wrong one. The contaminated machine was number 25 and they decontaminated number 51. They anticipate that the correct machine will be decontaminated tonight and the facility will reopen tonight.
11/4/01 - The Postal Service has decontaminated the one site that had tested positive for anthrax and the building is once again open for business.
11/3/01 - The second round of test results for the Bellmawr P&DC came back positive for anthrax. The Bellmawr facility has been closed again until further notice.
11/2/01 - Preliminary testing of the Bellmawr facility have come back negative for anthrax. The building will be reopening at 6:00 tonight. Employees can still be tested and get free flu shots until 8:00 tonight.
11/1/01 - The FBI has completed testing of the Bellmawr facility. There have been no new reported suspected cases of infection. Results should be available tomorrow and if the building tests negative, the plant may be back up and running by tomorrow afternoon. All employees can still go to Bellmawr for testing and antibiotics as well as a free flu shot. The Postal Service is recommending flu shots for all employees, if you choose to see your private physician to get one, local Postmasters have been authorized to reimburse you up to $20 (get a receipt).
10/31/01 - The South Jersey Processing & Distribution Center was closed today until further notice. A mail processor has preliminarily tested positive for skin anthrax. Results from a biopsy for final confirmation are pending. The facility has been closed and the FBI has been called in to oversee the testing as a possible crime scene. All employees from the P&DC as well as the Associate Offices served by the facility are being offered the opportunity for nasal swab testing.
SOMBROTTO SUGGESTS ANTHRAX SAFEGUARDS TO THE PUBLIC, NALC
Vincent Sombrotto, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, issued several recommendations to the public, NALC members and USPS management with regard to the anthrax contamination and safeguarding against future incidents.
"NALC should take precautions to make sure they are protected, including wearing masks and gloves if they feel they are necessary. If they encounter anything suspicious, follow the guidelines they have been issued and contact a supervisor immediately. Members of the public have received postcards with tips for identifying and dealing with suspicious mail. They should remain calm and follow those guidelines. The Postal Service needs to take steps to ensure the safety of the mail. That will also require congressional action to provide the USPS with the resources to buy and install equipment to sanitize the mail," Sombrotto said.
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Tuesday, Sombrotto also reminded Congress owes the Postal Service, a self-funded entity that doesn't receive an appropriation, $957 million under the Revenue Forgone Act of 1993.
"Rather than being paid $29 million a year over 42 years as is written into that act, the Postal Service needs the full amount now. Even that amount represents only a portion of the revenue lost as a result of the recent events."
Sombrotto said he the White House committed $175 million to deal with the immediate response such as testing and the distribution of antibiotics, masks and gloves. The Postal Service is also using $200 million from its own security fund.
"However, there are still enormous expenses to be met and the Postal Service will be seeking the $2.5 billion in funds necessary to obtain and install equipment to sanitize the mail. These are funds that would go towards the purchase of machines through which mail at all processing facilities would pass to be "cleansed" of biological agents. This would prevent the transmission of Anthrax, Smallpox and other infections through the mail. In addition to the actual purchase of the machines, each facility will need to be retrofitted to accommodate the new equipment and to ensure that employees are trained to operate them safely."
'Going postal' has new meaning
By Chuck Green
Denver Post
Wednesday, October 24, 2001 - Terrorists, domestic or foreign, have "gone postal."
As the son of a career mail carrier, I have never found humor in the phrase, and now it has taken on an even more grave definition than before.
Postal employees previously have been the victims of violence committed mainly by deranged colleagues, a risk that nearly any employee assumes regardless of his or her workplace.
But now postal workers find themselves on the front lines of what could be international terrorism.
And for those whose lives are being terrorized, it matters little whether the frightening assaults come from the same town or from across the oceans.
The spread of anthrax contamination of mailed materials has forced federal safety officials to abandon their previous casual stance toward the biological threat, which had recommended a guarded approach toward use of the antibiotic Cipro to battle the disease.
Mail handlers being exposed to the deadly bacterium was one thing, but congressional staffers being exposed was an entirely different matter.
Congressional employees were tested and treated for anthrax exposure; common mail sorters were deemed less critical.
And then came the discovery that White House and Secret Service staff members might have been exposed and suddenly the response was ratcheted up a few more notches.
While postal employees seemed to get lost in the shuffle, political employees started getting priority in the search for anthrax spores and the treatment of those who might have been exposed. Suddenly use of the drug Cipro was being recommended, not discouraged.
Congress shut its doors, but the mail kept moving.
Elected officials fled from the Capitol, but mail carriers stayed at their sorting cases and hauled their bags door-to-door.
Political appointees lined up at hospitals, but postal employees were told not to worry.
At least two postal employees were fatally infected; others are being treated for actual infections of the disease. But it wasn't until days after their exposure that officials intensified their efforts to detect the bacterium - after it had invaded the inner sanctums of the political world.
The discrepancy wasn't lost on postal workers.
"I don't understand how you can shut down the House of Representatives and not shut down the post office where the mail comes from," said one mail clerk at the facility where contaminated mail was processed.
Indeed. Defensive federal officials were scrambling to underplay the fact that political employees were given prophylactic doses of Cipro days before it was made available to many postal employees.
Suspicions of a double standard escalated Tuesday when even the mayor of the District of Columbia, Anthony Williams, was given Cipro, even though he hadn't even been examined for anthrax. "Testing is not appropriate; treatment is appropriate," Dr. Ivan Walks, the district's chief health officer, said Tuesday - more than two weeks after postal workers were known to have been exposed but not treated.
But postal employees, unlike members of Congress, weren't running scared. "We're all soldiers in this war," one postal union leader declared.
In that regard, "going postal" could take on a whole new meaning - a synonym for common courage.
Chuck Green's commentaries appear Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Center
For Disease Control and Prevention
How To Handle Anthrax and Other Biological Agents (.pdf format)
Latest News From National NALC
USPS Security Of The Mail - Latest Facts Update
2 Postal Worker Die Of Suspected Anthrax
