Post office beams in on mail sterilizers

Associated Press

BOSTON — The U.S. Postal Service is testing electronic beams to protect the nation’s mail from anthrax, and companies that make equipment to sterilize food and medical instruments are scrambling to adapt their products for corporate mailrooms.

Scientists, however, are warning that it is a giant leap from zapping chicken parts and surgical knives to sanitizing 680 million pieces of mail every day. And executives say the equipment may cost too much for some companies.

"It would be great if everybody had a multimillion-dollar machine to irradiate the mail," said Michael Critelli, chairman and chief executive of Pitney Bowes, which manages 1,300 corporate mail sites and has been looking into irradiation technology for clients. "But I don’t believe every customer will want the most expensive solution, because they will conclude there’s not a big risk for them."

Postal Service officials said the agency is working to obtain electron-beam machines that could sanitize the mail. But will they work?

University of Georgia food safety expert Michael Doyle said it could take up to 10 times the amount of radiation to kill densely packed anthrax spores in an envelope or package as it would to remove the kind of germs that typically infect hamburger patties.

"The spores of bacillus anthracis are much heartier than E. coli or salmonella," Doyle said. "It protects them, makes them very tolerant to environmental stresses."

Many say cost will prove the biggest obstacle, especially for the financially strapped Postal Service.

For example, MDS Nordion, a Canadian company that makes irradiation devices, said its largest units, of up to 6,000 square feet, would cost between $3 million and $5 million to build and install.

The Postal Service has received $175 million from the Bush administration for new safety equipment and security measures, and its governing board has released an additional $200 million.

Critelli said some Pitney Bowes clients are having the company scan their mail into a computer so they can read it without touching any paper.

He said he thinks the best solution to the anthrax mail scare is technology to verify addresses and sort out risky mail, which could then be irradiated.

Irradiation "is very expensive technology," he said. "Frankly, it’s not clear to me that, given the nature of the threat and the way that terrorists operate, that every single piece of mail needs to be cleansed."