The September 11th attack
Precautions advised in handling of mail

By Johnny Brannon and Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writers

Hawai'i postal workers, government officials and some private businesses are handling mail with extra caution following a rash of anthrax infections on the Mainland that authorities suspect were caused by sabotaged mail.

Wesley Brown an employee with Verizon, works in the mail room sorting mail. New precautions are being taken by many companies wary of sabotaged mail. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Authorities are now investigating possible cases of anthrax-tainted mail in three states. The suspect mail was received by a tabloid newspaper in Florida, where one employee died of the disease, and at NBC Nightly News in New York City and a Microsoft office in Nevada.

Microscopic bacteria spores that cause the disease can be inhaled or can enter the body through a cut or sore. A person can also become infected by eating anthrax contaminated food.

Broglio said it was important for people to not panic and overwhelm postal inspectors with far-fetched fears about items they receive. The Postal Service delivers about 208 billion pieces of mail per year.

"We all know we have limited resources, so let's use them wisely," Broglio said.

The Honolulu Fire Department yesterday responded to two calls of suspicious packages being received in the mail. In both cases, no hazardous material or substances was found.

The first call came from the Shriners Hospital for Children on Punahou Street. An employee reported receiving an unsolicited package from the Middle Eastern country of Qatar.

The police bomb squad, FBI and state hazardous materials experts investigated the package. The bomb squad X-rayed the package and found that it did not contain anything hazardous.

Also yesterday, a tenant in an apartment building at 326 Iolani Ave. reported receiving a suspicious package in the mail. The box was X-rayed and opened, but the contents turned out to be gifts from the tenant's cousin.

A Kaua'i Fire Department hazardous materials team collected a suspicious letter received by a Lihu'e man.

The recipient noted that the letter, postmarked from Virginia, had no return address and was sent to his mailing address, but without his name. He placed it in a resealable plastic bag and called police.

The letter was collected, further sealed, and sent to the state Department of Health in Honolulu for testing, said Mark Marshall, Kaua'i director of Civil Defense.

Rash of calls

On the Big Island, the Hawai'i County Fire Department's hazmat team in Kona has handled a rash of calls about suspicious packages and letters, since Sept. 11, officials said. One of the latest was Thursday, when a Holualoa man reported that he had received an unmarked and unsolicited manila envelope.

It was later determined that the envelope was sent by a marketing company making a sales pitch.

Based on the pattern of cases reported so far, media outlets may have more to be concerned about than the general public, based on the pattern of cases reported so far, according to Broglio of the Postal Service. Different types of anthrax were detected at the newspaper and television station, and authorities have not established any link between the two or to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

NBC's Hawai'i affiliate, KHNL Channel 8, is warning employees to be extra careful with mail and building security, marketing director Michael Langley said.

"We're obviously highlighting our awareness and using common sense precautions about everything," he said. "The people who handle our mail are professionals and they know what to look for, such as letters or packages with no return address."

Radio station KSSK is also exercising reasonable precautions but does not want to panic over the situation, business manager Keith Nakada said.

"I talked to our mail person and he's still alive and kicking," he said.

The Advertiser has advised employees who handle mail to to be "cognizant of anything unusual and take necessary precautions," including the use of rubber or latex gloves.

Ken Horiuchi, a postal carrier who was making his rounds in Makiki yesterday, said his personal plan was to be more attentive to health and safety concerns as he does his job.

"I plan to wash my hands more often," Horiuchi said. "Make sure I don't suck on my fingers; that sort of thing."

Horiuchi said the post office had given carriers the option of wearing gloves, but he had chosen not to.

"The customers we give the mail to won't be wearing gloves," he said.

Postal carriers have always known that their jobs could be dangerous, Horiuchi said. Package bombs have been around for a long time now. Bioterrorism is just the latest threat.

"You keep it in the back of your mind," Horiuchi said. "But the job comes first."

Procedures reviewed

The U.S. General Services Administration, which operates the nation's federal buildings and ensures their security, is also urging caution and reviewing procedures, said Esther Timberlake, an assistant to the head of the agency's Pacific Rim region.

"We are reviewing each of our facilities and determining which precautions to take," she said.

Hawai'i companies and agencies that receive lots of mail are also being extra careful.

Jan Kagehiro, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, said special training sessions were held yesterday for Kaiser's central mail room personnel. The training focused on learning to recognize a suspicious letter or package and to react appropriately to it, she said.

"I think the important thing," she said, "is to avoid panic. We need to be aware, but not to panic."

Hawaiian Electric Co. spokes-man Fred Kobashikawa said the company was on a heightened state of alert and that employees had been instructed to report anything suspicious.

Board of Water Supply spokeswoman Denise DeCosta said employees who handle mail "have been given special training to exercise caution."

The state's Department of Accounting and General Services has long had mail-handling procedures in place to protect from bombs or other hazards and has advised employees to refresh their memories, department head Wayne Kimura said.

"We're not jumping around here, we're being cautious and vigilant," he said.

Honolulu city officials could not immediately say whether they were taking any special precautions.

Louis R. Castro, president of the Hawai'i chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, said local post office supervisors seem to be attentive to worker concerns.

"They're making gloves and masks available," Castro said, "and we're asking that employees be allowed to wear gloves while working on the machines."

The union asks that the employees be given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether the gloves are worth the safety risk.

Castro said the union is also asking postal officials to stop using compressed air to clean the mail sorting machines, a procedure employees fear could cause any anthrax virus contained in the mail to become airborne.

Postal officials said they would stop the cleaning procedure temporarily, Castro said.

"We want to make it clear that we're not looking for any sort of alarmist situation where everyone presses the panic button," Castro said. "But the danger is real. We need to keep working, but we need to work with caution."

Staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.