Postal Service seeks assurances with anthrax alert system

The U.S. Postal Service will finish installing anthrax-alert systems at six processing facilities across the state by year's end, but how local health districts will respond if the devices trigger an alarm is in question.

The Postal Service wants assurances from local health districts that they'll send medical teams immediately if one of the Biohazard Detection Systems is triggered at a distribution center in Washington state. It expects the teams to diagnose those exposed and treat them with antibiotics.

Local health districts, however, are balking at what they say amounts to unfunded federal directives and increased liability for something they're not mandated by state law to do.

The resistance by some local health districts has postal employees wondering whether anyone will come if the alarm sounds. Local and state health officials say they will, but right now they want a clearer — and more participatory — method for determining who's in charge and who will pay a presumably expensive bill.

The Postal Service (USPS), as part of a nationwide program to protect its employees and the public, is installing more than 280 anthrax-detection systems nationwide. In Washington, three have been installed at processing and distribution centers in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. One will be operational in Everett by mid-June, and systems in Spokane and Pasco should be ready by November.

Federal officials began designing the alarm system after two letters laced with anthrax were processed at a USPS distribution center in Washington, D.C. Four postal workers at the facility became ill with inhalational anthrax in October 2001, and two eventually died. About 2,500 employees were treated for exposure.

A trial run of the detection system recently was completed, and now the USPS is moving forward with a draft response plan for use by local health districts. The plan includes steps for local law enforcement and other first-responders during an anthrax alert.

At Public Health — Seattle & King County, officials have agreed to respond should an event occur, but they want assurances that they won't be liable for any adverse reactions or problems postal employees might have with the medications.

At the Snohomish Health District, board members unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday saying they wouldn't be responsible for screening and dispensing antibiotics to postal workers.

Other health districts, including Thurston County Public Health, also have questioned parts of the draft agreement they say they had no part in creating.

"The feds and USPS, with input from Health and Human Services, defined this program at a national level so that one size fits all," said John Erickson, the state Department of Health's director of public health, emergency preparedness and response. "But in this state, where each local health department has local control, that doesn't work."

Erickson, who is working to bridge the gap between the USPS and local health districts, suspects health agencies in other states have similar concerns.

"I think in this state, we've just been a little more vocal about it," he said.

In Snohomish County, health board members say the cost of responding and treating postal employees would cost at least $10,000. That would hurt other services the district is mandated by law to provide, said Rick Mockler, the district's deputy director.

"In October 2001, we spent $60,000 responding to calls and false alarms, and no one found any anthrax west of the Mississippi," Mockler said. "Imagine the response we'll get from the general public if we have to respond to an incident in Everett."

The Snohomish Health District's resolution reads that it must limit its "scarce emergency response capacity" where general public health is threatened, and then only if a public health emergency is declared. That may not happen with an anthrax alarm at a postal facility, USPS officials say.

Thurston County officials also say limited staffing and monetary resources make such an operating agreement troublesome.

"I'm all for standardization, but there are many different issues [in each county] to address," said Mike Presswood, Thurston County's regional emergency-response coordinator.

Such talk worries Pat Evans, a USPS emergency-preparedness manager for the Seattle district, which includes King, Thurston, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

"I'm trying to put together a plan so that our employees are protected as best as they can be," she said. "We're not authorized to do some of the things that [the local health districts] want from us."

Evans said she knows local health districts are strapped for cash, and she has implored federal officials to give assurances that reimbursement would be available should anthrax be detected.

Legal issues regarding prescription liability also are being looked at by federal officials, said Robert Stockdale, a USPS biohazard coordinator for the Seattle area.

"We're trying to work through that one," Stockdale said. "We're looking for a remedy."

Should the detection device generate an alarm today or tomorrow or the next day, local health districts will be there, Erickson said. In the meantime, he said, more dialogue is needed to create a working plan that each district can help design. A meeting set up last month by federal officials was six months too late, he said.

"It's not that we don't want to respond, and the post office knows we'll do whatever we can at local and state levels," Erickson said. "But now that we have the luxury of developing strategies, that's what we should be doing."

Christopher Schwarzen: 425-783-0577 or cschwarzen@seattletimes.com