STATEMENT OF THE HON. ROSA L. DELAURO FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON- Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for inviting me to join you at this hearing today. As a fellow member of the Connecticut delegation, I know we share the same concerns with regard to safeguarding our postal system, so that the American people and our postal workers are never again put at risk by biological attacks like the anthrax attacks that claimed the lives of five people, including Connecticut resident, Ottilie Lundgren. Today's hearing is an important opportunity learning from what happened in the fall of 2001 during the anthrax attacks on our postal system, in particular at the Southern Connecticut Processing and Distribution Center in Wallingford Connecticut, which is in my district and which I have visited several times since the attacks. - Today we will examine our response to that crisis – in particular, what went right, what went wrong and what we can do better if there ever is a "next time." In retrospect, I think we were very lucky that no Connecticut postal workers died during the attacks that contaminated mail that passed through the Wallingford facility, because there were several communications breakdowns that concern me greatly. As others have noted, the Postal Service conducted two tests on the Wallingford facility following the tragic death of Ms. Lundgren, to investigate whether that facility had any traces of anthrax. The results of those tests, using dry and wet swabs and taken on November 11th and 21st 2001 respectively, were negative. Tests conducted by the Center For Disease Control on November 25th were also negative. But as postal workers continued to work at the Wallingford facility, a more comprehensive test was conducted by the CDC three days after the initial CDC tests using wet wipes and HEPA vacuums. And those tests came back positive. Further tests, taken by the CDC and the Postal Service confirmed those positive results. 3 million anthrax spores were found on mail sorting machines. So my first concern is why did it take so long to detect the contamination and why wasn't more comprehensive testing done following Mrs. Lundgren's death? Especially given that postal workers continued to work at the facility, one would think that using all the resources available would be an urgent priority. And my other concern relates to the Postal Service's seeming reticence to make public those later test results that showed its workers were at risk. While I understand that the Postal Service has said that it was following its guidelines which say the results must first be validated before being made public, why then did the Service show no such reticence in releasing the negative-and, as it turned out, false-results of the earlier tests? There is an inconsistency here that I find deeply troubling. When we are dealing with matters of public health, I think the public is better served when we err on the side of caution - when we are more, not less forthcoming and straightforward with releasing such information. We simply cannot afford to take chances with people's lives – particularly given the truly heroic efforts of those postal workers at Wallingford, who soldiered on in the face of an unseen and deadly threat. 1,100 employees at the Wallingford postal facility deserved to have a full understanding of the facts so they could make an informed decision before going to work everyday. So I commend my colleague from Connecticut, Chairman Shays, for convening this hearing today, and I hope we can correct the problems that slowed and hindered our response, and continue to foster those things that went right. All of us want the same As a member of Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee which oversees funding the CDC, I am also looking forward to hearing from the CDC and from Connecticut's Department of Public Health about how they worked together to stem this outbreak in Connecticut. Griffin Hospital, in nearby Derby, very quickly identified the case of anthrax and isolated the outbreak. Again, we were very fortunate that we had only one death. So with that, I thank the Chairman and the committee for allowing me to be here today, and hope we can make a real difference in the fight against biological terrorist attacks. Thank you again. |