- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
leading bio-terror expert has said people who feel panicky about opening
their mail amid the anthrax scare can use a hot steam iron and a moist
layer of fabric to kill germs.
-
- Ken Alibek, a top former Soviet germ warfare scientist
who is now a U.S.-based author and researcher trying to develop defences
against bioterror, on Tuesday told a surprised congressional briefing on
non-proliferation that a hot, moist steam iron and moist fabric could kill
anthrax spores.
-
- Pressed by surprised lawmakers who were not sure if they
had heard him right, he repeated that several times.
-
- "Iron your letters," he said, adding that a
microwave oven was not as good as an iron and that including moisture was
essential because spores could survive dry heat.
-
- For large amounts of mail, in big cities or postal distribution
centres, he recommended setting up portable gamma radiation units to sterilise
letters. "This problem could be solved," he said.
-
- Alibek repeated the advice of many other experts that
people should not buy gas masks. But he said that if his biotech company
and two others doing similar work got "significant funding,"
they probably could bring to market new antiviral drugs that would work
against several potential bio-terror weapons within two years. "We've
had interesting results with animals," he said.
-
- Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, who convened
the hearing, noted that the chances of anyone getting anthrax-contaminated
mail were extremely small
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