Global Security Newswire, 3 Nov 2011.

The U.S. Postal Service has implemented a number of security changes including more human and machine checks of questionable mail, 10 years after the anthrax mailings that killed five people and sparked a national panic, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday (see GSN, Oct. 6).

The mail system was used in fall 2001 to deliver a number of anthrax spore-filled letters to lawmaker offices and media organizations. A number of postal workers who handled the mail also were grievously sickened (see GSN, Sept. 15).

"Most people, I think, have forgotten about anthrax in the mail. And truthfully, that's probably not a bad thing," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said.

Postal Service workers today are generally less afraid of another bioterror attack through the mail system. A number of postal employees have ceased donning the globes and masks handed out to protect them against potential pathogens.

In the last decade, the service has handled over 52,000 questions about questionable mail. The large majority of suspicious mailings have been innocuous.

Postal Service shift managers are supplied with routine briefings on the latest potential dangers and postal officials routinely drill with police departments in preparation against a potential future strike.

Postal workers are directed to be on the watch for letters and packages that do not have a senders' address or a valid zip code as well as envelopes with liquid or powder leaking from them. Suspicious mail is to be forwarded to inspectors for additional screening.

On an annual basis, the Postal Service pays out $101 million to check all first-class mail in the United States (Ed O’Keefe, Washington Post, Nov. 2).

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