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Experts say they can make buildings safe again
©Associated Press, Though anthrax has turned American Media Inc.'s Florida headquarters into a 70,000-square-foot white elephant and workers are reluctant to return, experts in decontamination say there are new products that can make such buildings safe again. "I, personally, would go into the building," says general counsel Mike Kahane, whose office was located in the three-story Boca Raton center that housed six of the nation's largest tabloids. "But I know many people don't feel the same way I do." American Media is looking for new quarters while company officials consider putting the building up for sale. But experts say they can deal with anthrax-contaminated buildings. "You can't walk away from these buildings all over the United States," says Joan Dougherty, president of AA Trauma Cleanup in Pompano, an environmental cleanup company. If bleach and water were the only method available, it would be nearly impossible to clean up all the anthrax without gutting the affected areas. But people in the decontamination business are pinning their hopes on a new product developed at a government laboratory. Officials are conducting tests on a bacteria-killing agent developed by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., which is run by Lockheed Martin Corp. for the Department of Energy. The product, known in the industry as the "SNL formulation," can be used as a liquid, gel, foam, aerosol or fog. Anthrax spores are 1 to 5 microns in size and act like a hard shell for the bacteria. They are resistant to heat, cold, drought and radiation and can persist for decades or longer in soil. The Sandia product is designed to break down the protective coating and attack the DNA. Ron Gospodarski, president of Bio-Recovery Corp. in New York City, says anthrax spores tend to clump and settle on surfaces, where this decontamination agent can reach them. "These spores can't burrow themselves into walls and can't burrow themselves into the flooring or the ceiling or anything like that," he says. "So when we come in ... it's going to kill everything that's there." AMI employees are worried about anthrax in the air ducts and on computer keyboards. Gospodarski says the fog particles are smaller than the spores and can go anyplace anthrax can. EnviroFoam Technologies Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., one of two companies licensed to market the product, is consulting with officials in New York, Washington and Florida. Kevin Irvine, the company's manager of technical sales, says he has seen the product work in laboratories, and he's confident it can make workplaces safe: "I'd stake my life on it -- and I may have to."
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
