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back to Organic Consumers Assn. Stop Food Irradiation page OCA note: has some factual update info on the anthrax story Questions Surround Postal Service's Use of Irradiation Technology December 19, 2001 Newhouse News Service by Michelle Cole, staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. In committing to electron-beam irradiation as the nation's best bet to protect its mail, the U.S. Postal Service has taken a leap of faith technologically, financially and practically. Just eight machines have been ordered. When they go on line sometime after the first of the year, those machines will have the capacity to treat an estimated 5.6 million pieces a day a fraction of the 680 million letters and packages that move through the postal system on an average day. Just where the machines will be placed is not yet decided. And test runs of the technology haven't been exactly trouble-free. Still, postal officials, in consultation with top federal scientists, have decided that irradiation is the best choice for treating the mail against anthrax and other biohazards. They ruled out poisonous gases, chemical fumigants, gamma rays and ultraviolet light to settle instead on a technology used for decades to ensure that hamburgers and other foods are germ-free. Four anthrax-laced letters are known to have passed through the postal system. Five people have died, and 13 others have been diagnosed with anthrax and recovered. Postal workers now are handling letters and packages with extra caution. By next year's holiday season, postal officials hope to have an improved safety system in place. But there are questions about how electron-beam technology should be adapted for mail: how strong the irradiation current should be for effectiveness without damaging sensitive mail, what mail should be targeted for treatment, and whether treated mail should be labeled. The Postal Service is waiting for answers from a team of scientists from the Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal agencies. The team has developed tests to determine how much electron energy is necessary to eradicate anthrax spores that may be lurking in mailed materials. So far, they've told the Postal Service that it takes a dose of 56 kilograys to penetrate a standard No. 10 envelope. By comparison, the FDA has approved a dose of 4.5 kilograys to kill E. coli bacteria in raw meat. The science team has yet to determine what dose is necessary to kill anthrax spores in larger envelopes or packages, said Rachel Levinson, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "We're trying to do everything as quickly as possible," Levinson said. Even as the details are being worked out, the Postal Service has leased irradiation equipment in Ohio and New Jersey and is treating all mail sent to members of Congress and to federal agencies in Washington. A backlog of mail from two contaminated East Coast postal centers is also being treated. A few problems have surfaced. Earlier this month, 90 pounds of mail caught fire and was destroyed. Postal workers complained of nausea after opening bags of irradiated mail. Postal officials said that plastic wrapping around the treated mail had reacted at higher temperatures, creating a higher than acceptable level of carbon monoxide. Some industry interests have sounded the alarm. While irradiation through electron-beam technology leaves no harmful or radioactive residue, it can change the color of certain gemstones, alter the potency of prescription drugs and give some foods a rancid flavor. It can also kill seeds and destroy photographic film. "The concern is, depending upon the dose, irradiation could harm the effectiveness and stability of medicines, and that's particularly true for biological products such as vaccines," said Jeff Trewhitt, a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Postal officials are working on processes to isolate such materials from the stream of mail to be irradiated, said Gerald Kreienkamp, a Postal Service spokesman in Washington. With so many uncertainties, the Mailers Council, whose members account for about 70 percent of the nation's mail volume, has not endorsed the plans to use electron-beam irradiation. "We are still waiting on the Postal Service to put forward a formal plan that says, 'This is how we handle irradiation. This is how we handle detection in the future,'" said Robert McLean, executive director of the Mailers Council. The Mailers Council does support the Postal Service's request for funding from Congress to address security issues arising from the anthrax attacks. The House has so far declined to appropriate additional funds. A measure pending in the Senate would provide $600 million. Kreienkamp said the Postal Service has committed to buy eight irradiation machines at $5 million apiece, regardless of what Congress decides. If the federal government doesn't help out the post office, McLean said Americans are likely to pay for extra security measures through higher postal rates. The American Council on Science and Health [OCA note: an industry-funded free-market organization set up specifically to pooh-pooh any interference in business activities], based in New York City, was among the first to publicly encourage the Postal Service to consider irradiation technology to sanitize mail. "I haven't heard of anything else that's going to be both effective and easier to do," said Dr. Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the council, which includes 350 public health physicians and scientists. The FDA began approving the use of irradiation on foods nearly 40 years ago. Irradiation with electron-beam technology has also been used for more than a dozen years to sterilize baby bottle nipples, bandages, cotton balls and hospital supplies. "There's nothing new here. You have been living with this technology for the longest time," said Wil Williams, a spokesman for Titan Corp., a San Diego company that sold the eight irradiation systems to the Postal Service. Resembling security screening devices used at airports, the irradiation systems can be configured to fit in existing postal centers. Workers will load mail onto a conveyor belt that moves the material beneath a gun that propels a steady stream of electrons accelerated nearly to the speed of light and invisible to the human eye. Those energized electrons set off a molecular reaction, breaking apart the anthrax bacteria's DNA. It takes less than a second under the electron beam to kill E. coli bacteria in hamburger. Sanitizing mail from anthrax could require several seconds to a minute, according to the manufacturer. Bulkier packages may require X-ray treatment, which can be accomplished by slightly altering the e-beam equipment. The Postal Service has an option to buy 12 more machines from Titan. But Kreienkamp stressed that postal officials haven't settled on electron-beam irradiation as the "ultimate technology we're going to use" to protect the nation's mail. "We're still looking at all options," he said.

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