Fear fuels upswing in hazardous material calls

Since anthrax showed up in Florida and elsewhere, rescue workers strain to answer all the calls.

By LEANORA MINAI

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 17, 2001

A Largo woman received a package without a return address. The box contained curtains she had ordered two months ago.

A St. Petersburg mail carrier discovered white residue on a letter. It was drywall powder.

An Indian Rocks Beach man found powder in a carton of Diet Coke. It was mix from macaroni and cheese.

"I think they've accomplished what they wanted to and made everybody scared," Darryl Melander, a Seminole firefighter, said of the terrorists.

Fears over anthrax showed no signs of slowing down Tuesday as rescue workers from the Pinellas County Hazardous Materials Team answered more than 21 calls from people worried about suspicious envelopes and mysterious substances.

Emergency communications dispatchers screened dozens of other calls that were not considered credible enough Tuesday to send to the county's hazardous materials team.

The countywide team, which includes firefighters and paramedics from St. Petersburg, Seminole, Largo, Pinellas Park and Palm Harbor, usually responds to three calls a month.

But hysteria over contracting anthrax has generated nearly 20 times more complaints, forcing departments such as Seminole to staff its hazardous materials unit around the clock. Since Saturday, the county has responded to 105 calls.

"We've been getting inundated with calls that have been absolutely nothing," said James Fannin, Seminole's district fire chief.

On Tuesday, calls started spilling into Station 29 in Seminole after 1:30 p.m. when residents began checking their mail.

Melander and fellow firefighter Jim Solera drove to Indian Rocks Beach to investigate a complaint about a mysterious powder in a carton of Diet Coke.

"I was going to put the final four cans in the fridge and at the bottom of the carton was a small envelope," said resident Bernard Harvey, 61. "I wondered what the hell it was. I opened it. Saw it was a white powder and set it aside."

Harvey first called Coca-Cola to find out what the substance was in his carton. He waited an hour for a call back but didn't get one. He called firefighters. The powder was mix from a packet of macaroni and cheese, which had fallen from a pantry shelf.

"I was concerned, and now I feel like a damn fool," Harvey said.

Solera said people are scared, and emergency workers are not taking chances.

"Each one is treated as a real thing," said Solera, 41. "We're not taking any of it lightly."

Charles Spielberger, director of the University of South Florida's Center for Behavioral Medicine and Health Psychology in Tampa, said it is common for people to feel threatened.

"Clearly, people are concerned and some of them have lower thresholds in reacting to anxiety," Spielberger said. "The media is raising awareness ... and people are tending to see more danger in a situation than there probably is."

After the Diet Coke investigation, Solera and Melander drove to check out some powder at an Office Depot in Largo.

Outside the business, Melander and Solera slipped on green gloves and stepped into green boots and thick chemical protection suits. They sealed the seams between their suits and boots with yellow tape and strapped air masks over their faces. They walked through Office Depot as customers shopped.

"I probably don't need all of this protection, but you never know," said Melander, 39.

In the women's restroom, Melander brushed white powder into a Ziploc bag and then put that bag into two other bags. The bags were stuffed in a tin can and were driven to a state lab in Tampa for testing.

The firefighters then turned their attention to the assistant manager of Office Depot, Warren Wilson. He stepped in the powder and walked through the store. His shoe was wiped with bleach and water.

Authorities and experts say people need to put their fear into perspective. Is it necessary to handle personal mail with gloves and tongs, as one St. Petersburg businesswoman did over the weekend?

"If you really look at it, and you're a general citizen and not someone in the news like Dan Rather, why would they want to send it to you?" asked Dick Williams, director of Pinellas County's emergency communications. "The probabilities of that occurring are so low."

E. Scott Geller, a Virginia Tech psychology professor who has studied risk perception and safety for more than 30 years, said people are in greater danger of being in a car accident than being infected with anthrax.

"We're paranoid because the sense of personal control is lacking," Geller said. "Everything that is white and powdery is not dangerous. We need to discriminate carefully."

- Times staff writer Melia Bowie contributed to this report.

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