Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Scares scramble emergency squads
By Kristina Goetz
The Cincinnati Enquirer
They've found foot powder, a dirty hand print, drywall dust and cooking spices. Also found: an abandoned suitcase, a Power Point projector and an object wrapped in a bandana.
None was anthrax. None was a bomb.
Like other cities nationwide, Cincinnati has seen a dramatic spike in emergency calls about suspicious pack ages and possible bioterrorism contamination since the Sept. 11 attacks.
“We just want people to use common sense,” said Lt. John Ladd, a member of the Cincinnati Fire Division's bomb squad, which serves Hamilton County, Northern Kentucky and many outlying areas. “But if there is any question, we'd rather them call than to take any chances.”
While bioterrorism scares were investigated Monday at a bank in Alexandria and grocery store in Eastgate, Washington, D.C., was hit with the real thing.
A letter opened in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tested posi tive for anthrax, prompting a criminal investigation into a bioterrorism scare that has spread from Florida to New York to Capitol Hill over the past two weeks. At least 12 have the sometimes fatal disease or were exposed to it. One person has died.
Since Sept. 11, , the Cincinnati Fire Division's bomb squad has responded to 18 calls. There were only eight during the same one-month period in 2000. And those don't count police reports taken for bomb threats by phone.
But the largest increase is for reports of “suspicious white powder” in envelopes, letters and other mail. One was even for a powder sprinkled across a women's bathroom floor at Cincinnati State.
In a year, the Cincinnati Fire Division's hazardous materials team may respond
to a half-dozen anthrax scares — usually at the Internal Revenue Service or an abortion clinic.
But since Oct. 9 — just over a week — they have responded to more than 20 calls. Five of those happened before lunchtime Monday.
“There is definitely a drastic increase,” said Lt. Bill Lustenberger, a HazMat team member. “Do I think I'm going to receive a letter with anthrax in it at my home? No.
“But if I was a company executive that had problems in the past I'd be a little more concerned.”
He understands why even salt, sugar, talc or creamer may make people nervous. And he can see how companies might feel compelled to change their policies on handling mail.
Recently, Cincinnati HazMat and bomb squad teams responded to:
• A metal case under a table at the Tower Place Mall food court, which ended up being a Power Point projector someone had accidentally left.
• A powdery substance found in a box at University of Cincinnati's mailroom — foot powder a mother had put into her son's gym shoes.
• A woman who called from Christ Hospital to say she was afraid she had anthrax because she smoked a joint with a Middle Eastern man the day before and thought he had laced it with the bacterium.
The city's hazardous materials team's first call Monday was at Cincinnati State, where a woman coming into work noticed a white, powdery substance in a container near a trash can.
HazMat team members put on thick, blue surgical gloves and took in an evidence container that looks like a metal paint can.
“It looks like a spice, maybe garlic,” one of the firefighters said. Someone else described it as grated Parmesan cheese.
“I heard it looks like a spice container, but it had no label on it,” said Bill Russell, dean of enrollment and student development at Cincinnati State.
The squad came back a few hours later for a powdery substance on a bathroom floor. This time, though, they mopped it up with a bleach solution and wrapped the mop in a biohazard bag.
They also told an elderly man in Madisonville he could keep his mail from Chase Manhattan Bank, but to wash his face and hands.
And at Lunken Airport, a substance found on the outside of an Oct. 15 issue of Time magazine was deemed soiled, but not with deadly anthrax.
Anthrax spores are light brown or cinnamon-colored, not white, according to researchers at the University of California-Davis. And the absence of a colored powder is an indicator that it is not present.
But sometimes it may be mixed with other things. So as a precaution, everything found suspicious in the last few weeks has been sent off for testing.
“The laboratories are absolutely busting at the seams,” District 3 Fire Chief Alan Sedam said of the recent samples sent.
The HazMat team is now doing more investigation before calling the FBI or the health department.
“If we find a cup with white powder in it and there's real good cause that it's creamer and no one was exposed, there's a real good chance it won't go to the lab,” Chief Sedam said.
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