News story mail irradiation -Titan

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Radsafe:

A timely story about the mail being shipped from Washington, DC to Titan Corp  for sterilization and the SureBeam electron beam systems the postal service is buying.


Acccording to the article below [it could well be a reporter's mistake] the Titan Chief Executive Gene Ray [appropriate name for a fellow in the irradiation business] said:


"The source of the radiation is electricity,

there is no nuclear power involved," he said. Ray

explained that the electron beam technology works

by taking regular electricity and speeding up the

rate at which the electrons travel."


If Ray did say what he's quoted as saying, it's comforting to know no nuclear generated electrons or nuclear generated electricity are employed in the process. That might taint the process. Don't want any contaminated electrons from nuclear plants out there.


The full article and hyperlink to the original is below


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com



See link for original copy:

http://news.excite.com/news/r/011026/20/health-tit

an-anthrax


Click here for full origninal story from Reuters

      Titan to sell mail sanitizers to U.S. Post

Service



            Updated: Fri, Oct 26 8:55 PM EDT

      By Deena Beasley

      LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Technology company

Titan Corp. said Friday that the U.S. Postal

Service will buy up to 20 of its electron beam

systems to sterilize mail and eradicate the threat

of anthrax contamination.


      San Diego-based Titan said it will

subcontract the order for the systems, which use

electron beam and X-ray technology to destroy

harmful bacteria, to its majority-owned subsidiary

SureBeam Corp. .


      Titan said the Postal Service will purchase

eight systems for about $40 million, with an

option to buy 12 more, each of which cost about $5

million. In addition to providing the equipment,

the company said it will operate and maintain the

systems.




      Titan said it expects the first systems to

be received by the Postal Service in the

Washington, D.C. area in November. The company

said the Postal Service has also contracted to use

a Titan facility to sanitize mail.


      The U.S. Supreme Court building was closed

Friday after anthrax was found at an off-site mail

inspection warehouse, and traces were also

detected at a CIA facility, as authorities

struggled to find the source of letters laced with

the germ warfare agent.


      Tests earlier found traces of anthrax in

mail rooms that serve Congress, the White House,

the State Department and the main mail processing

plant for the nation's capital.


      So far, three people -- two Washington

postal workers and a photo editor at a

Florida-based media company -- have died of

anthrax in recent weeks.


      Titan's shares, which rose $1.21 to close at

$27.00 on the New York Stock Exchange, have gained

some 24 percent this week alone. Surebeam is up 21

percent for the week.


      "We provide a complete, computerized

system," Titan Chief Executive Gene Ray told

Reuters. He said the system package includes

computers, the tubular machine through which the

mail will pass, a material handling unit and a

system for measuring the precise dose of

radiation.


      He estimated the cost of using the

technology on mail to about a penny per letter.


       


      "It is just like your TV. Electricity comes

in there, passes through cathode ray tubes, and

turns into the picture," the CEO said.


      For the past eight years, Titan has used

SureBeam electron beam technology to sterilize

medical products, and for the last 18 months the

technology has been used by SureBeam to eliminate

dangerous bacteria in food.


      "We take hamburger -- raw or frozen -- run

it past the machine and all the Ecoli and other

dangerous bacteria is killed," Ray said.


      He warned that while the electricity is

harmless for most packages, electronic devices

would be damaged if passed through an electron

beam accelerator.


      Ray said Titan has received a number of

calls from other countries about potential use of

its system in mail handling, but said needs in the

United States come first.


      "What we are doing is delaying deliveries to

some of our other customers," the CEO said.


      He said the company currently produces about

50 of its electron beam systems each year, but

could make "three times that."