Mail zapped for anthrax often damaged

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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. "