Commercial mail probably won't spread anthrax. So, it won't yet be irradiated by the new machines the U.S. postal service just purchased to kill bacteria including anthrax.
Depending on what develops, commercial mail may be irradiated later.
That's the message from Postal Inspector Paul Trimbur, program manager of the USPS mail theft and violent crimes group.
"No commercial or direct mail will go through these irradiation machines," he told attendees at a session on gaining consumer confidence put together after the start of the DMA show.
"It's improbable that commercial mail would spread anthrax because it's separated from First Class mail as it enters postal facilities," Trimbur said.
Instead, at the Brentwood facility in Washington, D.C., the postal service will separate out "the most suspicious mail, such as hand-addressed letters without return addresses," from the First Class letters to irradiate.
"The message to get out to the public is there's no reason to decontaminate [commercial mail] because it was received as clean mail," Trimbur said.
But he admitted that the anthrax investigation is ongoing and "we don't know what spread" the disease in the mail. "You need [to inhale] 10,000 spores to get sick," he said.
Some 1,400 postal inspectors are working on the anthrax case. They are also checking for other diseases such as smallpox.
The USPS bought eight irradiation machines for $40 million that will be installed in November.
More machines may be purchased to use at other facilities in the future.
