"employee in . . . Dan Rather’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax"

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES Oct. 18 — An employee in CBS anchorman Dan Rather’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax, the network said Thursday.

Meanwhile, hazardous materials teams began combing the Capitol for traces of anthrax spores as the mail-borne terror campaign for the first time spread overseas with confirmation that an Atlanta-postmarked letter sent to a businessman in Kenya was contaminated with the potentially deadly bacteria.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), October 18, 2001

Answers

Response to "employee in . . . Dan RatherÂ’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax"

You know, as closely as I've watched all these anthrax reports and analysis on the tube I haven't yet heard a good explanation of how you pick up the spore. I know that if I'm sitting in a restaurant, and a guy at the next table who has anthrax sneezes, I am not going to get it, because it is not an airborne disease.

But, how close do I have to be to someone who, say, is opening an envelope with the spore in it. A foot? A yard? Ten feet? How far downwind can you catch it?

There are all kinds of unanswered questions like these.

If anybody has any answers I'm all ears.

-- Big Cheese (bigcheese@multimax.net), October 18, 2001.


Response to "employee in . . . Dan RatherÂ’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax"

Depends primairly on the degree of milling, how finely is it ground. To be weaponized, that is spores will float in the air, then, it needs to be in the 1 to 5 micron range. 50 microns is the width of the average human hair. Heavier than 5 microns means it soon sinks to the ground, won't stay airborn long. 1 to 5 means it will waff on the air currents and could float around for a long time. If I read correctly, the first Flordia attach was coarsly ground; probably like flour. You'd have to stick your nose in it, which the first dead guy might have done. The stuff in the Senator's office sounds like it

-- don park (dpark@magick.net), October 18, 2001.

Response to "employee in . . . Dan RatherÂ’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax"

Why do I always lose latter part of my email on this web site? To continue. The Senator's anthrax was (most certaily) a floater. If it had been put into the air conditioning, The halls and offices could be deadly for a long time.....dah, dah, d

-- don park (dpark@magick.net), October 18, 2001.

Response to "employee in . . . Dan RatherÂ’s office has been infected with the skin-transmitted form of anthrax"

Why do I lose the latter part of messages on this web site? The stuff at the Senators office was obviously, weapon grade, which means it is stuff that will stay suspended and waff around. If put in the ventilation system, it could float in the halls and offices a long, long time. dah, dha, dut, put, hope.

-- don park (dpark@magick.net), October 18, 2001.

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