Fw: Question: Will Irradiation kill anthrax spores?

["Jetty" <jmiddelkoop@ZONNET.NL>]

I got this from a "dangerous goods colleague" - and I do not know if this

has already been published on Radsafe. Perhaps this was the article that

triggered the whole discussion on this subject, but as I like you to see

this, I accept the risk it that you see this twice.



Jetty Middelkoop

Fire Department of Amsterdam

The netherlands



Question: Will Irradiation kill anthrax spores?

>

> Uri Yarkoni, DVM (Cornell 1977), currently a microbiology advisor to

> industry-advising that US authorities may want to know that Gamma

> irradiation of all dry paper mail will help stop the anthrax threats being

> sent in mail via the postal system.

> Yarkoni indicates to us that the delivery of 2.5 Mega rads will destroy

> Bacillus subtilis and will do the same to anthrax microbes (same genus).

> He suggests that this process be tested so that postal authorities can

have

> the option at their disposal to irradiate the mail and stamp it as

> "sterilized" to indicate to recipients that it is safe to handle/open. (He

> indicates that this level of irradiation may damage film, but that this

> might be a small price to pay...)Yarkoni was interviewed by Israeli media

on

> this topic and

> that coverage appears in today's Jersalem Post ("Radiation May Stop

> Bioterror Mail" by Judy Siegel) at

> http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/10/17/Health/Health.36397.html

> <http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/10/17/Health/Health.36397.html>



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