Use of Gas to Cleanse Offices Unprecedented

[Guest guest]

http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2001/10/news1025a.html

October 25, 2001

Use of Gas to Cleanse Offices Unprecedented

By Damon Chappie

Military and Congressional officials are considering the use of a powerful

disinfecting gas-chlorine dioxide-in a novel attempt to rid Hill offices of

dangerous anthrax spores that may be lurking on hard-to-clean surfaces,

individuals familiar with the matter said.

Although officials stressed that no decisions on decontamination methods

have been made, a Pennsylvania firm specializing in the use of chlorine

dioxide told Roll Call it has a contract with the Pentagon to develop a

fumigation technique that would pump the gas into anthrax-contaminated

office buildings and that it may begin putting the method to use very soon.

McWhorter, president of CDG Technology, said his firm has been under

contract with the Defense Department for the past year to develop a

decontamination method using the gaseous form of chlorine dioxide. The

approach has never been used before in an office building environment, but

McWhorter said, " We are getting to that point very quickly, much more

quickly than we expected it to. "

McWhorter said he did not know if the Pentagon was specifically planning to

use the method on the contaminated Congressional office buildings, but he

confirmed that using such a method " is a possibility. "

" We have been working as a subcontractor on a project for that for over a

year now, and suddenly it got a lot more exciting, " he said. " There is a

project and it probably will work. "

The primary contractor on the project is Science Applications International

Corp., he said. A SAIC official confirmed the existence of the contract with

the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency but refused to discuss any

details about the work. DARPA officials could not be reached for comment.

Doug Hattaway, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.)

told reporters that using a gas is one method of decontamination that is

under consideration. He did not elaborate on the type of gas or how it would

be used.

A senior GOP aide also confirmed that the method is being given serious

consideration, but stressed that the final decision has not been made.

Experts said that other potential methods include scrubbing surfaces with

bleach, something that has already been done in the LBJ room off the Senate

floor as well as in the post office facilities in Florida where the first

anthrax cases were reported.

But this technique would be difficult if not impossible in a setting with

documents and papers that the deadly spores may have landed on.

Lt. Dan Nichols, spokesman for the Capitol Police, said a decision on the

" re-mediation " method used to cleanse the affected areas had not been made

and declined to further discuss any of the options.

" The decision's not been made. The EPA and other experts on re-mediation

efforts are exploring a number of options, and they have not yet reached a

determination on the most efficient and effective method to use. When they

do that I'll announce it, but right now there are a number of options under

consideration. "

Nichols did acknowledge that the use of gas to cleanse the areas is one of

the methods under discussion, but declined to elaborate further.

" It's under consideration, and it wouldn't make sense for me to discuss the

options until a decision's been made. "

Information about the Hill's anthrax cleanup was shrouded in secrecy, and

several officials refused to even discuss the matter. An EPA official,

speaking on background, said the agency was under orders not to discuss the

Capitol Hill decontamination plan.

McWhorter, whose company develops systems using chlorine dioxide to

disinfect drinking-water supplies, said using the chemical as a gas in

office buildings has never been done before.

Chlorine dioxide, in liquid form, is a widely used disinfectant and

anti-microbial agent used to disinfect water, certain food supplies, and

also in the making of paper products. In a gas form, it has also been used

to treat medical devices.

But the anthrax attacks on office buildings filled with hard to scrub

surfaces like mail and documents have created a potential new use for the

gas. " One of the driving forces for this is that it penetrates into most

permeable things. It will get into all of the nooks and crannies, into

books. It will penetrate into an envelope so that if you have something

inside a sealed envelope the gas will permeate into it and kill the

anthrax, " McWhorter said.

The process, he said, would normally take a couple of hours but he said it

would be difficult to calculate precisely the amount of time that may be

needed. The gas would be pumped through a building's air-conditioning system

and allowed to spread throughout the building for several hours.

" It would take hours, not days or minutes but hours, " he said.

Then, he said, the gas would need to be removed from the building by

reversing the flow and sending it through a scrubber to cleanse the air and

remove the chemical.

Jane Houlihan, research director for the Environmental Working Group, a

grassroots group that studies the environmental effects of chemicals and

pesticides, called chlorine dioxide " a really good disinfectant that is

highly regulated in the workplace. This stuff has a terrible smell so that

people will know if it is still in the building. "

According to a fact sheet on chlorine dioxide from the National

Antimicrobial Information Network, the chemical is effective against a

variety of microorganisms and works by disrupting critical molecules in the

cells of germs. It is also classified as " moderately toxic " and on " humans

.... is irritating to the eyes, nose and throat. "

She said she is confident that health officials, who are already exercising

a great deal of caution in dealing with the bioterrorism attacks, would do

adequate testing after it was used before letting people back into the

buildings. " But it is just critical to make sure that there are not any

anthrax spores that could still infect people. That's the number one

priority. "

Kip Howlett, executive director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council, said the

chemical would be very effective against anthrax. " What you are trying to do

is kill a very virulent spore. " He said regulators would evaluate and test

the areas before allowing people to return to the spaces that were

fumigated. " Disinfection is not something new to this industry, " he said.

" Mother Nature is one thing, but when you have got terrorists and evil

people who are hell-bent to direct damage to the citizens of this country,

fortunately we have the capacity to treat these situations and make these

offices habitable again. "