APFN

"FIX" FOR BIOTERROR VIA THE MAILS!!!

Thu Oct 18 00:03:06 2001


"FIX" FOR BIOTERROR VIA THE MAILS!!!
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The technology of COBALT-60 RADIATION STERILIZATION has been used by pharmaceutical and medical-device
companies for a number of years. For instance, many bandaids are sterilized in this manner. In its most simple embodiment,
boxes of sealed product are stacked in the irradiation room. A COBALT-60 source is raised from the floor/containment pool
and the boxes are left in place for a period of time. When sterilization is complete, the radiation source is lowered and the
boxes are removed. The process kills ALL known bacteria, fungii and viruses. For sterilization of, say, hypodermic needles,
sophisticated conveyor/Cobalt-pellet systems have been developed to speed throughput.


Rather than dealing with cumbersome training of mailroom employees, inefficient bureaucracies, repetitive and hazardous exotic
vaccinations, etc., it is this author's contenion that U.S. and private mails, and the mails of package services can be sterilized in
this way. Initially, government, media, military and sililar mail could be treated using existing medical-device facilities. Also
suitable would be the facilities of radiation crosslinked wood-parquet floor manufactuers. Ultimately, such large-scale facilities
could be constructed at all major mail and package hubs, eliminating the threat of agents such as anthrax.


Cobalt sterilization methods and equipment are described at length in the following publications:

*STERILIZATION OF MEDICAL PRODUCTS, VOLS. II, IV and V, Polyscience Publications, Inc.,
Morin Heights, Canada

*STERILIZATION TECHNOLOGY, A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR MANUFACTURERS AND
USERS OF HEALTH CARE PRODUCTS, Morrissey, R.F. and Philips, G.B., Van Nostrand Publishers,
Reinhold, N.Y.

*U.S. Patent No. 3,225,203--Gombert--Dec. 1965

*U.S. Patent No. 3,496,362--Kirkpatrick Et al.--Feb. 1970

*U.S. Patent No. 4,066,907--Tezlaff--Jan. 1978

*U.S. Patent No. 4,481,652--Ransohoff--Nov. 1984

*U.S. Patent No. 5,008,550--Barrett--April 1991

*U.S. Patent No. 5,400,382--Welt Et al.--March 1995

*U.S. Patent No. 5,787,144--Findlay--July 1998
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Biotechnology Writing and Consulting - tgmy7@hotmail.com
Due Diligence Market and Product Research and Summaries
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WHAT NOT TO DUE!

Re: maybe zapping suspicious mail is the answer
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 19:42:21 -0400
From: "cccc1" cccc1@concentric.net
To:


The very last thing you'd ever want to do with a supicious piece of mail (assuming a bio hazard) would be to stick it in a
microwave oven.
First, it tends to heat in spots. Those create steam, which expands rapidly, causing things to blow apart. (hence the classic
pop-pop-pop as you cook things.)
Second, there's a fan in every microwave oven. Some have poor filters on the air inlet side. None have them on the outlet.
Thus, when things went "pop-pop-pop" that would blow whatever you'd placed into it into pieces, most of which had avioded
heating. The fan would then blow those right out at you!
Shy of an autoclave, you could far more safely bake a letter for a couple hours in a conventional gas or electric range at 375
degress. But if I was suspicious enough to do that, I think I'd just burn it.
In that vein, a really clever terrorist would have stolen (or faked) 100,000 envelopes from the IRS, infected them and sent them
out. Of those 999,950 would be burned, along with 99.995% of all the others. The Federal government would shut down in three
weeks and all terrorist attacks would subside accordingly. Hey, if they are smart enough to hijack four airliners simultaneoulsy then
they'd surely be smart enough to figure that out, too!
But on the mircowave question - No, it wouldn't work to your benefit. If it had anthrax spores in it, you'd likely contaminate the
whole office and your own lungs in the process.
Ralph