Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house 89-545 PDF U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 2003 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM DAN BURTON, Indiana TOM DAVIS, Virginia, Chairman CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut RON LEWIS, Kentucky JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan WILLIAM J. JANKLOW, South Dakota HENRY A. WAXMAN, California JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts DIANE E. WATSON, California STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California C.A. "DUTCH" RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of Columbia JIM COOPER, Tennessee CHRIS BELL, Texas BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont (Independent) LL CONTENTS Day, Thomas G., vice president of engineering, U.S. Postal Service; Wil- liam Burrus, president, American Postal Workers Union; Kenneth Mar- tinez, engineer, Centers for Disease Control, accompanied by Bradley Perkins; James L. Hadler, State epidemiologist, State of Connecticut Department of Public Health; and R. Davis Layne, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Occupational Safety and Health Administration Rhodes, Dr. Keith, Chief Technologist, Center for Technology and Engi- neering, Applied Research and Methods, accompanied by Bernard Ungar, Director Physical Infrastructure Issues; Dr. Jack Melling, former head UK Center Applied Microbiology and Research; Dr. Robert G. Hamilton, director, John Hopkins, accompanied by Barry Skolnick; and Colonel Erik A. Henchal, Commander, U.S. Army Medical Re- search Institute of Infectious Diseases, accompanied by Dr. George Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Burrus, William, president, American Postal Workers Union, prepared Page Hadler, James L., State epidemiologist, State of Connecticut Department 138 Layne, R. Davis, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Occupational Safety and 157 Rhodes, Dr. Keith, Chief Technologist, Center for Technology and Engi- 16 3 STAMPING OUT ANTHRAX IN USPS FACILITIES: TECHNOLOGIES AND PROTOCOLS FOR BIOAGENT DETECTION MONDAY, MAY 19, 2003 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, EMERGING COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1 p.m., in room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Shays (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Janklow, Kucinich, Linda Sanchez of California, Ruppersberger, and DeLauro. Staff present: Lawrence Halloran, staff director and counsel; R. Nicholas Palarino, PhD, senior policy advisor; Kristine McElroy, professional staff member; Robert A. Briggs, clerk; Joseph McGowen, detailee; David Rapallo, minority counsel; Denise Wilson, minority professional staff member; and Jean Gosa, minority assistant clerk. Mr. SHAYS. Good afternoon. A quorum being present the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations hearing entitled, "Stamping Out Anthrax in Postal Facilities, the Technologies and Protocols for Bioagent Detection," is called to order. Whether the mail-borne anthrax attacks of 2001 were of domestic or foreign origin remains a mystery. The investigation, to date, has not discovered who forever transformed once innocent letters and packages into ubiquitous vectors of disease. So the lessons learned from these tragic events remain our best defense against further attempts to contaminate the mail stream and other public spaces with deadly spores. There was much to learn. Once it became clear the envelopes sent to Senators Leahy and Daschle had left a deadly trail of extraordinarily virulent statically volatile anthrax, established assumptions about the ancient pathogen had to be discarded. The accepted lethal dose of 8,000 to 10,000 air borne germs, derived mainly from animal data, had to be revised drastically downward. Perhaps to just a single spore. Sampling and testing protocols proved insensitive to finely engineered material easily reaerosolized. It is those sampling and testing protocols we examine today. The search for anthrax at the Wallingford, CT, postal facility offers an instructive case study, a cautionary tale on the need to maintain |