Non-Subscriber Extract
The challenge of anthrax decontamination
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| 07 June 2004 |
By Andy Oppenheimer
Since the series of mailings containing military-grade anthrax spores that killed five people and terrorised millions of US citizens in October 2001, health and postal officials have faced the new and massive task of decontaminating all the facilities where officials detected anthrax spores.
More than two years after the attacks, the vast mail-processing centre in Trenton, New Jersey — where the letters apparently entered the US postal system — has finally been decontaminated. Hundreds of pieces of equipment, furniture and a diverse array of surfaces had to be totally fumigated and tested repeatedly for contamination. The anthrax spores presented an especially difficult challenge as they are among the hardiest micro-organisms in existence, known to be able to survive without a host for decades.
Each decontamination plan for anthrax or other biological releases will be tailored to the unique situation at that site. Any plan will vary based on the size and type of the potentially contaminated areas (for example, a large open mailroom or a small office cubicle); how the area was contaminated (such as a high concentration of spores contained in an envelope or a lower concentration of spores tracked down the hallway from a contaminated area); how contamination was dispersed (for example, through an air handling system or by ordinary movement within an office); and other characteristics related to daily activities in the area. If spores are widely dispersed and have travelled through the air, decontamination may involve extensive isolation and fumigation. But if the contamination is limited to a small area and spores are not likely to become airborne, minimal isolation and surface decontamination methods alone may suffice.
A site health and safety plan is needed to protect workers inside and outside the contaminated area, as well as the surrounding population. Upon the commencement of decontamination activities, the facility manager should notify employees and others (such as union representatives) of the nature and scope of the work and its expected duration. Once cleanup is completed, a new round of sampling should be completed to make sure that the biological agent has been removed or killed and that it is safe to reoccupy the area. In some cases, it may be necessary to use more than one type of treatment or to treat the location more than once.
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