Military

DATE=October 24, 2001

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-35477

TITLE=Anthrax and the Postal Service

BYLINE=Dave Arlington

TELEPHONE=619-1101

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

CONTENT=

HOST: In the past few weeks, three people in the United States have died of anthrax and Americans are worried that they may pick up a dangerous infection when they pick up the mail. Health officials have been taken by surprise by the ability of anthrax spores to spread from a single envelope in the mail stream. They say the war against terrorism on the home front may prove as lengthy as the one being waged on a battlefield half a world away. Today's Dateline examines "Homeland Insecurity." Here's Dave Arlington.

DA: U-S authorities are tracing the routes taken by three contaminated letters received by news organizations in New York and the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington. Postal inspectors are trying to identify postal workers and other people who are at risk of disease.and locate the terrorists who mailed the letters. When the President of the United States opens a five-minute press availability with this assurance:

CUT ONE BUSH :02

"First of all, I don't have anthrax."

DA: And ends the session the same way:

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"I don't have anthrax.I don't have it. (Thank you all)"

DA: Then you know anthrax is the number one topic in much of America.especially in the city where President Bush was speaking, Washington, DC. Thousands of Washington area postal employees are being treated with antibiotics to protect them from a possible anthrax outbreak. Washington's Health Director, Ivan Walks, indicated in a television interview that fears of new anthrax cases could continue for another month, even if there is no further exposure to the bacteria:

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"We know that people can become ill after exposure to anthrax breathed in for up to forty days after."

DA: Only three contaminated letters have been discovered in a postal system that handles about 200 billion pieces of mail each year.and Postmaster General Jack Potter says he believes the majority of the U-S mail is safe. But he says he cannot guarantee that.and his agency is asking Americans to handle their mail very carefully. Every household in the United States is receiving a postcard this week with instructions on how to recognize suspicious mail. Mr. Potter says the Postal Service itself is under attack:

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"Like other symbols of American freedom and power, the mail and our employees have become a target of terrorists."

DA: Health officials have discovered how little they really know about the threat of anthrax. Last week they said the main mail handling facility in Washington was safe even though the tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle went through that building. Acting on their advice, Postmaster General Potter held a news conference inside the facility, confidently declaring that the single letter would not endanger workers:

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"That letter was extremely well sealed and there is only a minute chance that anthrax spores escaped from it into this facility."

DA: Health officials went on to say for days that postal workers need not be tested for anthrax. But now, one week later, two postal employees who worked in the building have died.others are infected with the dangerous inhaled form of anthrax.and spores have been detected in three other buildings that process mail for the White House and Congress. Postmaster General Potter says everyone now understands that a single envelope can release anthrax into the air and infect people nearby. So he has announced some expensive changes. By November first, he says the Postal Service will have its first machines that can irradiate mail to kill biological agents. And the agency says it is changing the way it cleans the machines that sort the mail. Workers will vacuum up the bits of paper, ink and adhesive left behind.instead of blowing all the gunk out of the machine and into the air. Thomas Edwards, the Director of Government Relations for the Postal Service, told me he could not be angry at health officials who gave the agency faulty advice:

CUT SIX Q&A W/ EDWARDS 1:19

Edwards: Everybody's a genius in retrospect. And the health authorities are under a significant burden here. In the last 25 years prior to three weeks ago, there's just one person in America who suffered from inhalation anthrax. We just don't know how to handle this. It's a significant problem and we're learning more and more day by day. Do we wish we had known what we know today last week? Absolutely.and it's tragic that we didn't. But there's nobody to blame here. The people who are to blame are those terrorists who have attacked America.

DA: Isn't it ironic that the automation equipment that you installed to help speed the mail might have been a problem here?

Edwards: We don't know what the problem was. All we know is that a letter with anthrax has been through that facility and as a result there's contamination. We are mobilizing our resources to get new vacuuming machines in there.we've got our engineering people scouring the country for technology that will help us sanitize the mail.

DA: Could this in some sense shake the foundation of the Postal Service as you lose mail-order business and people choose to send messages and pay bills on the Internet?

Edwards: Well, it is our job to reassure people that the mail system is safe and delivering for them every single day. We're going to figure out a way to make sure the mail moving through the system is clean and the people can have confidence in it."

DA: But have Americans already lost confidence? Newspapers are full of stories about people who now use gloves to open their mail or let their mail pile up because they don't want to deal with their fears. Mail delivery was suspended in some Washington neighborhoods and some government agencies this week. And the Postal Service may be losing the confidence of business, just as the nation's major mail-ordering season begins. Gene Del Polito, President of the Association for Postal Commerce, told me businesses belonging to his federation were already suffering from the U-S economic slowdown and a slowdown in mail service following last month's terrorist attacks:

CUT SEVEN Del Polito Q&A 1:28

"Del Polito: This has not been a good year economically for businesses that use mail for communication and commerce to begin with. For many of the companies that normally rely on this particular season to make a lion's share of their revenue for the balance of the year, their responses from their customers are down like 20, 25 percent. Now, you add to that the anthrax scare, and despite the fact that the feelings of vulnerability are wildly overblown, the reality that you're stuck with is that people are concerned about mail that's now coming to their homes. And that surely is not going to do anything to pump up their willingness to open mail and be responsive to marketing messages sent by various businesses.

DA: Is the Postal Service losing one of its traditional assets a belief in the sanctity of the Postal Service?

Del Polito: Clearly, all postal systems run on the basis of trust. When you give something to the postal service, you're trusting that the piece will be safe, secure, sealed against inspection and delivered within a reasonably timely way. The events of September 11th and the anthrax stuff strikes to the very heart of that sense of safety, security and timeliness.

DA: Is this anthrax scare, then, the final factor that will lead to a great deal of postal reform or even signal the end of the Postal Service as we know it?

Del Polito: Yes, it could do that. Congress has to focus on the postal system because this is an essential part of the American economic infrastructure. It represents 900-billion dollars of economic activity each year -- the equivalent of about eight percent of our gross domestic product. And we cannot afford to allow it to fall behind."

DA: Even before the anthrax scare, the Postal Service was proposing a sharp hike in the price of postage. President Bush has now authorized giving the Postal Service 175 million dollars to purchase new safety equipment.and agency officials may ask Congress for additional money. Vincent Sombrotto the president of the labor union that represents more than 200 thousand letter carriers says the Postal Service is threatened.but its workers will see the crisis through:

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"We have a proud history of more than 200 years of delivering under all circumstances as difficult as they may be. This is another one of those circumstances where we have to rise to the occasion."

DA: Early this week Mr. Sombrotto reported that, despite their concerns, very few letter carriers were wearing gloves or other protective clothing while they were in America's neighborhoods. Another labor union was actively urging members in the public eye not to wear gloves or masks. The American Postal Workers Union said "this is not the visual image we wish to project to the citizens we serve." At midweek, union officials changed their minds. They began recommending protective clothing.and the Postal Service says it will be mandatory for some workers once the agency has a large enough supply.

President Bush has said there are two fronts in America's war on terrorism one battlefield outside the United States and another at home. So, while U-S soldiers are in harm's way in Afghanistan, the members of another uniformed service the U-S Postal Service are in their own fight. They are already reporting casualties. For Dateline, I'm Dave Arlington.