Lawyers learn how to protect against bioterrorism

These days, bills aren't the worst thing that can come in the mail.

Reducing business liability in relation to bioterrorism was the topic at the Springfield Metro-politan Bar Association's monthly meeting, held Nov. 28 at Kentwood Hall.

Karen McKinnis, bioterrorism coordinator for the Spring-field-Greene County Health De-partment, first advised lawyers to tell their clients to "have a plan" to deal with bioterrorism.

Having a plan, posting it for employees and talking about it just like fire evacuation plans will go far in reducing a business' liability should disease-bearing germs or viruses be introduced into the workplace via mail, McKinnis said.

Business owners would be well-advised to adopt a system much like one used by abortion clinics. Clinics have been the target for anthrax mail scares for years, McKinnis said.

Set aside a room that has no airflow to the rest of the buildings as the area for opening mail, McKinnis said, and make sure it has little furnishings and no upholstery.

The space should have impervious surfaces that can be easily wiped down with antiseptic cleaners, she said. The person designated to open mail can wear gloves and whatever other personal protective equipment they wish a mask, respirator or clothing coverings.

The designated person opens the mail over a trash can equipped with a removable plastic liner. If the individual is suspicious of a letter, it can be dropped in a bag and sealed. The mail handler should then leave the room notify the Health Department.

"That's about the best they think they can do, and it's not bad. Most businesses can do that," McKinnis said.

She advised that the "sensible thing is to be alert to anything that looks out of the ordinary."

Bass Pro and Roadway have more extensive plans, she said. Each has had questionable de-liveries. When Bass Pro re-ceived a suspicious crate from Texas at its loading dock, Mc-Kinnis said, "They saw it and shrink-wrapped it the whole crate."

They loaded it into a trailer, sealed it and moved it to the far end of the parking lot "until we could get in there and see what it looked like; and it didn't look like anything. But somebody was watching and curious. That's what they did, and it worked fine."

There has been a preventive vaccine for anthrax for a long time, McKinnis said, and anthrax is treatable if it's diagnosed in time.

But untreated inhalation an-thrax has a mortality rate of 97 percent.

An 11-year-veteran of the crime laboratory here, McKin-nis said she has been working to update the Health Department's bioterrorism plan since she started her job there a year ago.

Bioterrorism "is not a new topic." An informal surveillance system has been in place for years by doctors and hospitals who send the Health Department information on sick people and what type of illnesses they are seeing, she said.

She said there were 13 levels of alert using the health alert network HAN developed in Missouri two years ago with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control.

This area is one of three metropolitan statistical areas in the HAN, along with Kansas City and St. Louis.

The Springfield MSA covers Greene, Polk, Taney, Stone Christian and Webster counties, she said.

The HAN goes out by e-mail or fax "to the people in the communities that we think would be first responders," about 1,800 people.

In order of alert level, first are ambulance emergency workers, "who are going to be at the front line out there and they know who and what type of people they are transporting for possible biological terrorism and contagion agents."

Grocery stores are the second level, which is one "that we use all the time. We can notify grocers immediately ... to pull that hamburger or pull that yogurt."

Then come other health de-partments, infection-control nurses at the hospital level, large employers' nurses including the universities, law en-forcement agencies for security purposes, the media, the medical examiner, coroner and mortuaries, and pharmacies.

Physicians are next, listed by 38 different specialties as needed, then school nurses K-12, and veterinarians because "animals are good signals for certain diseases." Others on the notification list are chief executive officers of businesses and dentists.