WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Ample precedent exists for successfully decontaminating congressional office buildings exposed to anthrax, scientists told a House committee Thursday.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee, said events of the past few weeks force-fed legislators a crash course on anthrax and how to clean it up, leading to confused and inconsistent public statements.
"Today, instead, we get to have 'Decontamination 101' -- a thoughtful, comprehensive overview of what we know and what we still need to know from acknowledged experts in the field," Boehlert said.
What is known includes that anthrax was found in the Hart Senate Office Building and Longworth House Office building. Rep. Ralph Hall, D-Texas, the committee's ranking minority member, said apart from that, there is plenty to learn.
"It is now over three weeks since anthrax was discovered at the Hart building and there is still not a consensus plan for decontamination," Hall said.
Witnesses at the hearing, including environmental health professors and a retired biowarfare researcher, told the committee the contaminated buildings can be returned to full use, as long as the government creates and follows a coherent plan.
Manuel Barbeito, a former senior member of the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories in Fort Detrick, Md., oversaw the complete decontamination of the labs after President Nixon banned the United States use of offensive biological weapons, including anthrax, in 1969. The National Cancer Institute has used the buildings since that time, he said.
Multiple decontaminations at the labs proved substances such as ethylene oxide and peracetic acid to be effective, Barbeito testified. Heating paraformaldehyde to flood large spaces with formaldehyde gas, however, turned out to be the easiest, most efficient method, he said.
Multi-room buildings at Fort Detrick as large as 1 million cubic feet were successfully cleared of anthrax to a World Health Organization-recognized standard using that method, Barbeito said, and larger structures probably could be as well.
"Our experience has dictated (testing to that standard) if you have a contaminated building, and at that concentration we have not had subsequent infections or problems," Barbeito said.
Dr. James Baker, director of the Center for Biologic Nanotechnology at the University of Michigan, reminded the committee the buildings will not be sterilized in any case, and an acceptable level of residual anthrax spores has to be determined before cleanup begins. It will also be vital to provide medical and psychological support for staffers who re-occupy affected buildings, he said.
Dr. Lynn Goldman, professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., testified scientists could define stringent enough standards in days, if necessary. An appropriate system for sampling cleared areas could be created in a similar timeframe, she said, especially if current knowledge about indoor air pollution is applied to the problem.
Some decontaminants can leave an unhealthy environment or damage computers, furniture and other office equipment, Goldman said, but that would not rule out their use.
"We tolerate much greater side effects from a medication that treats cancer than from one that treats a headache," she said. "This is a serious disease and so we might be willing to tolerate a greater degree of potential risk."
Bohlert asked the witnesses which government agency should command the cleanup operations. Goldman and Barbeito said the Health and Human Services Department, with its many public health-related components, would be the best choice. Baker said the departments of Defense or Energy have been in the forefront of dealing with decontamination issues and should remain there, although HHS should also be involved.
Hall asked Baker about a novel decontamination agent developed at his center. Baker explained the substance, a foam, activates anthrax spores to expose the bacteria, and then kills it. Baker told Hall the agent was not in use at the Hart building yet because conditions there are not optimal, and the researchers would like a government waiver to avoid future regulatory issues related to the foam's use.
