Detection system protects Central Oregon from biohazards in mail

Sisters area residents may not want to believe that they might become victims of a terrorist anthrax attack through the U. S. Postal Service’s mail system. Neither did residents in the eastern United States in October of 2001 when five of 11 people contaminated with mailed anthrax died.

Now, thanks to a new biohazard detection system recently installed in the Bend main post office, any anthrax contamination will be detected. If it is detected, a fast response plan is in place to quickly isolate the contamination and to treat any exposed people.

This system has been added to the standard mail processing equipment in the post office and scans every piece of mail. Samples of air from each envelope are collected and once an hour, samples are tested.

If the anthrax DNA is detected, alarms sound, the sorting system stops, key personnel in the post office and local emergency agencies are automatically notified and a response plan gets underway.

The biohazard system has tested 100 percent effective and can be expanded to test for other hazards.

If contaminated mail has left the post office by truck, Oregon State Police will be notified and that truck stopped en route for return to Bend.

“I carry this electronic beeper on me 24-7, “said Bend postmaster Robert Zlatek, Jr. “If I go to bed at night and there has been no alarm, I know we have gotten safely through another day.”

When the alarm sounds within the post office, employees leave the “hot zone” and move to a “warm zone,” a large warehouse-type room just outside the mail processing facility. Roll call is taken and no one leaves that room until emergency responders arrive.

“We have portable restrooms permanently installed in this ‘warm zone’ and thermal covers to keep people warm in this unheated room if it is winter,” Zlatek added.

“Our primary concern is to ensure our employees and the communities we serve remain safe,” explained Zlatek. “We have been working to integrate Postal Service and local emergency management plans and we are continuously working with local first responders.”

Meanwhile, the Central Oregon HazMat Team, part of the Redmond Fire and Rescue Department and one of 14 teams in the state to respond to hazardous materials incidents, quickly responds. Members set up a treatment center just outside the “warm zone.” Within five minutes, a plastic pass-through shelter is in place. Employees enter this 20-by-20-foot plastic tent, discard their clothing, shower in separate showers for men and women, don special clothing, and are transported to a designated place for initial treatment. Exposed persons receive the antibiotic Cipro.

“We have on hand a 10-day supply of Cipro for 250 people,” Zlatek said.

“If an employee is ambulatory, we transport them through the center of our treatment center, remove their clothing and wash them down on a stretcher,” said Karl Johnannsen, HazMat team representative. Water from the showers is collected in a large bladder for testing later.

The contaminated area becomes a crime scene that Zlatek describes as “an attack against the United States.” Federal law enforcement agencies will investigate the incident.

The Bend Post Office sorts and distributes between 100,000 and 120,000 pieces of mail daily covering all of Central Oregon from Camp Sherman and Sisters to John Day, from Madras to Chemult.

“Keeping the mail moving is vital to our economy, so if we get contaminated here, we quickly will shift our distribution center to Redmond,” Zlatek explained.

Zlatek recalls that about four years ago, an incident occurred at the Sisters Post Office before the biohazard system was in operation.

“A can of mace went off in a package and created a temporary incident,” he said.

Johnannsen said that there has not been a HazMat incident in Central Oregon in the past 18 months.

However, over the past dozen years, the Redmond team has responded to 80 incidents. They generally don’t involve mail.

“About half of these incidents were overturned tanker trucks,” he said.