Mayor defends response to anthrax scare

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris yesterday defended the city's handling of a downtown anthrax scare, as well as his decision to purchase DNA laboratory equipment to confirm future field tests for the disease.

"We followed our protocols, our protocols are correct, and we intend to continue to respond to cases such as that in exactly the same way," Harris said of the incident that tied up Bethel Street on Tuesday.

U.S. Postal Inspectors had complained that they were not immediately notified when city field tests on a suspicious letter determined it was contaminated with anthrax. The test results, rendered by equipment the city began using last week, proved to be false.

Postal inspectors had also said they should be the first to respond to many reports of suspicious mail, and that the city had been unnecessarily dispatching hazardous materials crews to false alarms.

But Harris said postal authorities do not have the proper equipment or training for responding to incidents where such materials may be present.

He said police and firefighters would continue to be the first responders, and that they would notify the FBI of any credible anthrax threat. The FBI could then notify mail authorities and any other appropriate federal agencies, he said.

"The protocol has been worked out over years of planning and it's very sensible," Harris said.

After meeting with Harris and the FBI yesterday afternoon, Postal Inspector Kathryn Derwey agreed that her agency was not in a position to be the first responder.

She said she was satisfied with the protocol and that inspectors would be glad to assist police and FBI agents in assessing any future suspicious mail.

If a field test shows a letter is contaminated with anthrax, the post office it passed through will immediately be notified so that anyone who came in contact with the letter can be identified, Derwey said. That post office would also be closed to the public to prevent additional contamination.

The FBI said it would have no authority over a suspicious mail situation unless the mail contained a specific threat or tested positive for anthrax at a laboratory. But the agency said it would notify postal inspectors when FBI agents are called about suspicious mail by police.

Neither Harris nor HFD Chief Attilio Leonardi could say why two of three field tests conducted Tuesday had falsely registered positive for anthrax. But they said they were confident that field testing strips and machines the city bought are reliable, and that hazardous materials crews had been properly trained.

"We know the equipment works, and I don't think (the incident) should be used to criticize the firefighters, because I think it's quite understandable that something like that could happen on the first time out," Harris said.

The city has also purchased air sampling equipment to help test for anthrax at major events where large numbers of people are present. Final training for using that gear was to conclude yesterday.

Leonardi confirmed that officials had considered using cellular phones, rather than radios, to discuss future anthrax field tests, so that reporters could not listen to test information over scanners. But he said that idea had been abandoned, and HFD would continue to disclose the results of such tests but would stress that they are preliminary, and must be confirmed by laboratory tests.

"If we have a positive test and the media are there, we'll tell them," he said. "They have a right to know."

Gov. Ben Cayetano and others had criticized Harris for discussing the field test results at the scene of Tuesday's scare. But Harris said it would have created panic to withhold that information because reporters had already heard of the results over scanners.

He said he had clearly explained that the field tests still had to be confirmed in a lab.

"We're going to continue to inform the public of what we're doing and what the results mean," Harris said. "We'll have to rely on media to accurately inform the public."

State Health Director Bruce Anderson had questioned whether the new $60,000 lab equipment the city is buying would duplicate functions that the state is gearing up to perform at its existing lab.

He and Harris met yesterday to settle those concerns, and agreed that results from the city's lab would be forwarded to the state for final analysis.

But Harris said it was necessary for Honolulu to have its own lab — which will be mobile — so that officials could quickly check out any anthrax threats, and so that the city is not dependent on another agency.

"Quite frankly, we can't be in a position where there's only one piece of equipment at one place that can do this analysis on biological contamination," he said. "That would mean one wire falls off one piece of equipment and our whole state is without the capability of doing that analysis."

The state's lab can verify anthrax threats using a method that requires growing the bacterium in a culture over several days. In a few weeks, new equipment will allow that lab to perform more rapid DNA analyses, Anderson said, about the same time the city's DNA lab is to be ready.

The Navy's Pearl Harbor lab already has that capability, and determined that Tuesday's scare was a false alarm. The Navy will train firefighters there to use the city's new lab equipment, and it will eventually be installed in a stepvan so that it can be used at the scene of an anthrax scare if necessary, Harris said.

Harris said the city had spent about $240,000 on the new testing equipment and lab. He said officials were still compiling the overtime costs for police officers and firefighters who have responded to more than 100 anthrax false alarms over the past two weeks.

But the city's $5 million "rainy day fund" should cover the expenses, he said.

"This is not about budgets," Harris said. "This is about public safety, and we're not going to unnecessarily scrimp on public safety expenditures. We're not going to let overtime considerations limit our public safety response."