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Research
Biological Warfare

Article 1

The Decontamination of Anthrax and Other Biological Agents

Testimony of Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MPH
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD
Thursday, November 8, 2001
2318 Rayburn House Office Building

Part 5

Major research questions that must be answered to improve decontamination

There are a number of areas of research that are important. Certainly, it is difficult to protect people against biological agents when you have so little information about how they move in buildings, and in the general environment. Here are a few of the areas that I think are important in the short term:

  • A protocol for sampling buildings: Develop statistically based approaches to sampling HVAC systems and locations within buildings

  • Exposures of postal workers and mail handlers: Use personal monitoring to assess the levels of respirable dust in the immediate vicinity of people who work with large volumes of mail. This could have immediate implications for intervening to protect people.

  • Contamination in the mail: Use surrogate organisms to assess how anthrax spores are released from the mail, in mail handling and processing. This would help understand spore concentrations and spread in the air, on surfaces, on mail, and on the clothing of mail workers.

  • Development of methods for decontamination buildings: Along with the development of decontamination methods, it should be considered whether there are modifications of building design and work practices, as well as means to more quickly identify hazards, that can be put in place to prevent or minimize contamination of buildings.

  • Risk communication: How do we communicate the straight facts to the public, without sowing terror and fear (which is, of course the real object of terrorists)? How do we talk to children about these issues? This time is an opportunity to generate knowledge in this area that will be essential to improving how these crises are handled in the future.

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