How do you react to spills of unidentified powder?

Anthrax

Anthrax is an acute infectious (i.e. transmissible through the air) disease causing coal-black skin lesions. It is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It can be very lethal. Anthrax can be found in nature around the world, occasionally infecting herbivores such as antelopes, camels, cattle, goats and sheep. Humans can catch it from exposure to sick animals or their tissues, or to large concentrations of anthrax spores. People are not known to catch it from each other (i.e. it is not contagious), and the body can deal with low concentrations. People can breathe it into the lungs (the most deadly way) or it can enter via the intestines or under the skin. The symptoms depend on how the anthrax gets into the body (flu-like, severe food-poisoning type, or painless skin lesions, respectively). It was estimated in 1993 that releasing 100kg of spores upwind of Washington DC could cause between 130,000 and 3m deaths.

Some strains (there are at least 89, some of which are antibiotic-resistant) are much more virulent than others. Some have been used for bioterrorism, including the Ames strain in the U.S. in 2001 and the Vollum 1B strain used in the US and UK bioweapon programs in the 1960s. The Sterne strain is a benign strain used for inoculations. Antibiotics used against anthrax include penicillin, ciprofloxacin (Cipro), doxycycline, erythromycin, and vancomycin. Antibiotics should be administered very quickly and in large doses (within a day for inhalation).

Britain contaminated Gruinard Island in Scotland in 1942 with the Vollum/14578 strain. The island remained unusable for 48 years. A room at a research lab at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland in the USA was permanently sealed after an accidental release. Obtaining anthrax from an animal in an undeveloped country and cultivating it is relatively easy. Turning it into an aerosol suitable for a weapon is very difficult. Nevertheless quite a few nations can probably produce it, and it has been used in isolated cases. Its possible use is taken very seriously, with many unexpected releases of powder causing anthrax scares, particularly in places like mail rooms and the offices of potential targets. There are also many hoaxes.

There is a vaccine (said to be 93% effective) which should be given at least four weeks in advance, with annual boosters. It is not recommended unless the risk of infection is considered high. A full-face mask protects from inhalation, and soap and water is sufficient for unbroken skin.

Anthrax forms spores when it runs out of food from a living or dead animal. Once released, anthrax spores can survive for decades in soil without a host. Contaminated sites need to be sprayed with oxidizing agents including catalysts.

Homeland Security Lists Few Toxic Threats

The Homeland Security Department is compiling a material threat determination list. There are around 60 candidates to go on the list. So far, only four have been classified as highest-level threats: anthrax, botulinum toxin, smallpox and the effects of radiological and nuclear devices. The next three nearest to making the list are plague, tularemia and chemical nerve agents. A review of viral hemorrhagic fevers will be begun next month. The department looks at how infectious the diseases are, how easy it is to get hold of them, what their effects are, whether there are enough vaccines or antidotes to cope with an outbreak, and whether new countermeasures should be developed.

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Hsing-Hsing at the National Zoo (1986) Photo courtesy of Smithsonian

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How do you react to spills of unidentified powder?

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