It is not a Matter of If, but When

I do not intend to have this article seem like Doom and Gloom. Instead, I hope that it becomes a wake up call for all of us to be prepared. There has been a flurry of recent articles, especially in the March 2008, Homeland Defense Journal magazine’s article, “The Threat from Chemical, Biological and Radioactive Weapons”. This article may have also been the reason some of the network TV stations had a recent broadcast about the supposed intentions of Osama Bin Laden to attack us using an anthrax weapon he began developing in the late 1990s.

The days of Mail Center personnel wearing gloves and masks seem to have faded in our memories. I am sure that somewhere is a closet buried under things that are needed on a daily basis to run Mail Center operations are some left over gloves and masks. However, from my observations visiting customers, I feel that we are not very prepared if another incident should occur.

There are for sure, many more X-Ray systems in use today then were in 2001. But X-Ray systems are but one safety initiative that has been installed in organizations. But I feel the need to ask some questions. Does your organization have a plan of action in the event a suspicious item is found? Have you tested the plan? Are all your personnel trained on what their response should be? Are you able to contain any potential hazardous leaks?

Facility Managers will have to know what will happen if the building is compromised in the event of an incident. The costs, if even a false alarm, could cost in the tens of thousands if not millions of dollars. Imagine a brokerage firm or bank not being able to trade commodities for a couple of hours or days if their facility is contaminated.

During the 2001 anthrax incidents, many organizations decided to rent trailers and put furniture in them and have them parked in their parking lot while Mail Center personnel made sure that the items going into the main facility were not potentially harmful. Other organizations used off-site facilities or used service companies to receive and check their incoming items away from the designated main facility.

A great deal of time and a lot of money was spent doing all sorts of things that may or may not have worked. We do know that some equipment created false positives for hazardous items. We also know that some marketing gimmicks created havoc with harmless things being crushed in the Post Offices’ automated sorting systems thereby causing a good deal of false alarms. But again, it cost a great deal of time and money to deal with these situations.

What can be done to be better prepared? Well our capitalistic system has created a wide variety of helpful systems and equipment to deal with a wide variety of potential hazards.

Some of the things that should be seriously considered, in my opinion, are X-Ray systems with sniffer technology that can detect various biological, chemical, radioactive and explosive items.

Containment and evacuation procedures should be established and tested on a regular basis. 

Intellitrack Inventory Control

PC based Incoming Receiving and Tracking Systems are helpful, especially in identifying any personnel who handled and may have been exposed to the hazardous items. These same systems help in confirming that an organization is receiving only items it is supposed to receive and at the same time control the entire delivery cycle of these items. The system can also request immediate confirmation from the end user if they are expecting an item, if there is even the slightest hint of some potential questions about the legitimacy of the item.

Off site or remote locations for receiving most if not all incoming mail and items seem to have caught on with quite a few organizations. This is a wise decision in that it will protect the main facility, however procedures have to be implemented to ensure that delivery delays, if any, are minimized.

Other technology that has been brewing over the past few years has now come to a boil in being potentially one of the safest methods of handling all incoming mail. By opening mail in a secured off-site location, the envelopes and their entire contents can be scanned and emailed to the end users. Software that these systems use can allow for the end users to simply click a button if they need the original contents to be delivered to them. These systems can have the added benefit of having information that has to be resent to someone else in the organization to be sent electronically, thereby saving the time and cost of using inter-office deliveries.

I know that the immediate argument about this technology is that not all people want to have all items opened by anyone but themselves for a wide variety of reasons. However, this thinking can quickly change if we, God forbid, have any more incidents. There can be a host of procedures and techniques to protect the privacy of the items being scanned.

Another added benefit of this technology is that it improves service as the scanned items are instantly delivered to the end users.

Talk about “Green” which is the buzz word of today. Just think of how many less elevator trips have to be made in organizations that have multiple floors since the mail will be delivered electronically.

If you would like additional information on any of the above or other topics of interest to you, please call us at (201) 329-7200 or E-Mail us at info@mailsolutions.info

Sal Dassaro

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