The September 11th attack
Anthrax scare shuts down Bethel Street

	Graphic: Testing suspicious substances
•	Tips for handling mail
•	Special report: Anthrax: Fighting the Fear

Advertiser Staff

For four hours yesterday, downtown Honolulu was caught up in its first major anthrax scare after a test kit suggested the presence of the deadly bacteria on a letter sent to a Bethel Street architectural firm.

Honolulu Fire Department personnel converge at the intersection of Merchant Street and Bethel Street. Bethel Street was closed for four hours yesterday while officials investigated an anthrax report. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

The 10:15 a.m. scare shut down Bethel Street and the five-story McCandless Building where the letter was received. The closure snarled traffic through downtown, set off rumors in businesses and government offices, and triggered other calls about suspicious letters and packages that kept hazardous materials crews and public officials scrambling through the afternoon.

At about 2:10 p.m., Navy lab technicians at Pearl Harbor determined that the suspicious envelope did not contain anthrax or any other harmful substance.

"It didn't seem serious at first, but then the fire (crews) and ambulances kept coming and you could hear people getting kind of paranoid," said Fionna Kini, a student at Med-Assist School of Hawai'i across from the McCandless Building at 925 Bethel St. "Whether it's anthrax or not, it was kind of scary being right next door."

Reliability of kits questioned

It was the first time the city's field test kit reported a positive anthrax finding on a piece of suspicious mail, raising the level of anxiety among officials, including Mayor Jeremy Harris, who rushed to the Bethel Street site.

The sequence of events also called into question the reliability of the field test kit. Gov. Ben Cayetano, who shrugged off the initial reports about the positive findings, said the field kits were "unreliable" and suggested it would be better to use military facilities to test suspicious material before alarming the public.

Harris defended the use of the tests and said the city would continue using the field kits. The first of the city's seven devices, which cost about $15,000 apiece and are roughly the size and appearance of a fax machine, were received last week. Eleven other tests by the kits for suspicious substances in recent days turned up negative, he said.

Harris described the results of the field test equipment as "95 percent accurate" even though he acknowledged that the preliminary findings were later rejected by the more accurate Navy laboratory test.

Cayetano took issue with city officials' revealing that an initial test was positive.

"The only lab that can confirm this with any kind of credibility is the Navy lab," Cayetano said. "Those machines that the city has has an error of margin that is much too high for me. They're not reliable and that's why they're not certified by the (federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)."

Harris said Cayetano is confusing the city equipment with old machines that didn't work as well. "He is mistaken," the mayor said.

Harris said the Atlanta-based CDC neither certified the field-testing equipment nor rejected it because it is so new.

New equipment due soon

He said the city expects the arrival next week of $60,000 worth of DNA lab equipment, similar to what the Navy has. City Emergency Services Director Salvatore Lanzilotti said the city is buying the equipment because, if the Navy deploys its lab workers elsewhere, there would be no testing capability on O'ahu.

State Health Director Bruce Anderson declined to recommend whether the city should continue to use the field tests, but said they could be valuable if used correctly.

"We're not advocating use of field test kits, and we're not discouraging their use either," he said. "But people should be aware of their limitations."

The tests can help determine how seriously a potential threat should be taken and how quickly more extensive laboratory tests should be conducted, he said. But undue reliance on a field test kit could be dangerous because it could falsely indicate that an actual threat posed no risk.

"The city has a new tool now for responding to these incidents, but it is not a definitive test," Anderson said. "Clearly, we would recommend no action be taken solely based on that test."

He said city and state officials must continue to work together so that some officials do not assume responsibilities they are not fully equipped to handle.

"This is a situation were we have to be very clear on what our respective roles are," Anderson said. "Some protocols need to be reinforced."

Deputy Health Director Gary Gill, the state's top environmental health official, said suspicious mail that tests negative for anthrax in the field would still be tested in a lab. Additional circumstances, such as a written threat or foreign postmark, would help determine how quickly such definitive tests would be conducted, he said.

"A lot of other evidence goes into determining whether there is a plausible threat," Gill said.

Letter was from Saudi Arabia

Yesterday's series of events began with a report by Group 70 International, an architectural firm on the fifth floor of the McCandless Building, about an unsolicited resume in an envelope with a Saudi Arabia return address.

Sheryl Seaman, company president, said a receptionist opened the mail and called emergency workers. The envelope did not contain any powder in it, but there was a "gritty feel" to the paper, according to Harris.

The Honolulu Fire Department conducted three field tests with the portable kit. The first, a visual assessment, was positive for anthrax; the letter was then put through an optical scanner and those results were positive as well, Harris said. But a second test through the optical scanner was negative.

The letter was taken to the Navy laboratory at Pearl Harbor where further tests established that it did not contain anthrax, according to Capt. Richard Soo, spokesman for the Honolulu Fire Department.

The McCandless Building was locked down, with 100 people — about 65 from the architectural firm — inside. Firefighters handling the suspected letter were decontaminated. And Bethel Street was shut down from South King Street to Nimitz Highway.

In addition, the U. S. Postal Service said it identified all employees who may have had contact with the letter and quarantined workers at the Merchant Street station pending the outcome of the Navy test.

Seaman credited emergency crews for their quick response and constant updates to the people locked inside the building.

"The crews were terrific," Seaman said. "Everyone was very helpful, very professional. I think they did an excellent job."

The Bethel Street anthrax scare triggered a series of reports of suspicious mail and substances throughout the day.

Soo said there were 26 calls up to 7 p.m., most of them from people in downtown commercial buildings.

Since Oct. 12, Soo said, there have been 140 calls. None has turned up positive for anthrax or any other hazardous substance.

Advertiser staff writers Scott Ishikawa, Brandon Masuoka, Johnny Brannon, Robbie Dingeman, Lynda Arakawa, Curtis Lum, Mike Gordon and Rod Ohira contributed to this report.