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Is enough being done to protect the mail?

Billions have been spent to counter anthrax and other bioterrorism. But critics say the efforts are too little and too slow

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Protecting the postal system
Sept. 10: Rosa Fulton, Dir. of the Merrifield Postal Facility, outside Washington, D.C., tells NBC's Fred Francis what measures are being taken to protect the U.S. mail system from a biological attack.

Today show

By Fred Francis
Correspondent
TODAY
updated 1:32 p.m. ET Sept. 10, 2004
Remember the other terrorist act on American soil in the fall of 2001? Anthrax attacks through the mail system that killed two postal workers and three members of the public?  With the passage of time, most Americans have forgotten the fear they had in opening letters and packages. But do they have reason to feel safe now? Billions of dollars have been spent on preventing another bioterrorism attack through the mails and in dealing with one should it occur. Critics, however, say it isn’t enough. NBC News correspondent Fred Francis reports on the situation on the “Today” show, part of a special NBC News series called “12 Ways to Make America Safer.”

Never before have the top bio-containment labs been more important. There are at least 80 biological agents, including anthrax, that can be used against us.

Labs, like the one at the Army's Fort Detrick in Maryland, are making progress in finding vaccines and treatments, but it’s a slow grind that isn't well funded.

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“The bottom line is, when it comes to homeland security — until it happens, people aren’t very ready to spend the money," said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Nowhere is that more true than at the nation's post offices, which were bio-terrorism ground zero three years ago. Five Americans were killed by anthrax, making everyone fearful of their mail.

The panic led to a focus — and spending — on the safety of the U.S. mail system.

"We never thought in terms that we were on the front line,” said Rosa Fulton, director of the Merrifield Postal Facility, just outside Washington, D.C., a hotspot in the 2001 attacks. “And now we have technology that will assist us in looking and understanding very quickly if we have to respond.”

But, say critics, it is not nearly enough.

It is still frightening to know that there is no better way than the U.S. mail to reach and contaminate 128 million homes and 12 million businesses.

  NBC NEWS SPECIAL SERIES

In a special series that aired on Today, Nightly News and MSNBC cable, NBC News looked at what things can be done now to improve our security.

However, only 27 of the U.S. Postal Service’s 283 distribution centers have anthrax detectors. For two years, Congress has been reluctant to spend the money.

But now 500 million dollars is about to be approved. More inspection technology will make Americans safer, but it will take time.

The technology is impressive. It examines each piece of mail — literally squeezing and sniffing it — for anthrax's DNA signature.

But for 750,000 postal workers it's not enough. Not yet anyway.

“We're still exposed,” said William Burrus, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “We were exposed before the attack, we are exposed after deployment of the equipment."

And the government’s own watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, agrees with the postal workers. In a report released yesterday, the GAO criticized the Postal Service's new guidelines designed to respond to suspected anthrax contamination at a postal facility.

The GAO report is specifically critical of the postal-service plan because it:

  • Does not define some key terms, including those that would trigger a decision to evacuate a facility.
  • Includes some outdated references that could cause confusion during a future response.
  • Does not address certain key issues, such as what steps would be taken during the interval between a diagnosis of anthrax in a postal employee and confirmation of the disease.

In addition, the report said, the plan does not reflect proactive measures, including facility closures, that the Postal Service has recently implemented in response to suspected contamination.

In response, Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan told “The Trenton Times” in New Jersey that postal officials were "gratified that the GAO acknowledged that we did have the health and safety or our employees and customers first and foremost."

He pointed out that the Postal Service has continually revised its guidelines since the anthrax attacks and has spent $1.5 billion on anthrax-detection devices.

"We are taking heed of the GAO's suggestions and recommendations, but we were doing that anyway," McKiernan said.

Until the entire mail system is outfitted with the new technology, the nation must rely on a quick response after an anthrax attack. There are now 12 medical depots around the nation with 600 tons of supplies.

But they are still missing one vital ingredient: an anthrax vaccine, which is still two years away.

The good news for Americans, most experts agree, is that the bad guys do not yet have the sophistication to exploit the holes that still exist in the system.

© 2009 MSNBC Interactive.  Reprints

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