Post Office gives up on germ zapping machinery

A year after the anthrax-by-mail crisis, the U.S. Postal Service has abandoned its plans of installing expensive electron-beam devices in many mail sorting facilities to zap harmful bacteria.

The agency says it has since shifted its goal toward finding hand-held devices that would allow postal carriers to detect harmful materials, much the way a Geiger counter detects radiation.

“We have not found a machine that is really capable of doing that yet, but we are looking at a number of companies,” Robert Cannon, Postal Service spokesman in Boston, said yesterday.

The agency spent $40 million last fall purchasing its first eight electron beam machines that were slated to be installed in the Washington, D.C., area to screen government mail. But Cannon said all eight have yet to be installed because of problems with the equipment. He said the machines can erase computer discs, make foods taste bitter and discolor envelopes.

The cash-strapped agency also found that it had to build a separate “containment room” around each machine, to protect workers from the powerful beams.

Of the nation’s 18 confirmed anthrax cases last year, five people died, including two Washington, D.C., postal workers and a Florida newspaper editor who opened an anthrax-laced letter.

“The more time that goes by that another hazard doesn’t show up in the mail, you have to assess the threat,” Cannon said. “All of (the agency’s plans) could change tomorrow if another letter shows up.”