THE ANTHRAX SCARE
False alarm triggers Amid some criticism that they overreacted, city officials are defending their response to yesterday's anthrax scare that had a nervous city waiting several hours before knowing for sure whether bioterrorism had landed in Hawaii.
fast action, criticism
The scare was sparked in
part by false readings by
anthrax field-testing devicesThe governor criticized the
Downtown reactions supportive
equipment plus an e-mail from
the mayor's office telling city
workers not to open their mail
Device maker blames haste
Anthrax factsStar-Bulletin staff
The scare was due in part to two false readings by anthrax field-test units recently purchased by the city to assist Honolulu Fire Department Hazardous Materials teams in making on-the-spot assessments of suspicious packages or substances.
"We have state-of-the-art equipment," Mayor Jeremy Harris said. "It's the best that there is."
Although a third on-site reading was negative and a Navy laboratory later confirmed there was no presence of anthrax, the two initial readings not only shut down major downtown thoroughfares and buildings, but sent a scare throughout the island.
The events unfolded about 10 a.m. when officials from the architectural firm Group 70 International reported a suspicious letter from Saudi Arabia -- a résumé that had an odd feel to it.
"There wasn't any powder per se, but the texture of the paper was very unusual," Harris said. Group 70 President Sheryl B. Seaman said the letter was suspicious enough that the company contacted authorities.
An HFD HazMat unit arrived about an hour later at the firm's 925 Bethel St. offices and performed the field tests, which showed the presence of anthrax.
Word of the positive test spread quickly following an e-mail from the mayor's office to city department heads and their secretaries that eventually circulated outside city offices, including to the Star-Bulletin. The e-mail instructed: "Everyone in the city is to stop opening mail immediately. There is a positive identification of anthrax in the downtown area."
About 40 minutes later -- after a third field-test was negative and the matter had been turned over to the Navy for confirmation -- a second e-mail was sent stating "there are conflicting reports concerning the presence of anthrax in the downtown area" and asking that people "use your discretion" with mail.Results from Navy tests confirming the letter contained no anthrax were announced at 2:10 p.m.
State officials, including Gov. Ben Cayetano and Health Director Bruce Anderson, criticized both the reliability of the city's new field-test equipment and the widely distributed e-mail message.
"The only lab that can confirm this with any kind of credibility is the Navy lab," Cayetano said. "Those machines that the city (purchased) have an error margin that is much too high for me, they are not that reliable and that is why they are not certified by the (U.S. Centers for Disease Control)."
Harris said that Cayetano "is mistaken" and was referring to older equipment.
City officials have said the field-test units, manufactured by Illinois-based Alexeter Technologies, have a reliability rate of 95 percent. The field-test units have been used 12 times, including yesterday, since the city received them Oct. 16, city officials said.
"Whether it has a false positive or not, we're not going to let people be at risk simply because the technology has not reached the level of sophistication where we can get a 100 percent reading in the field," Harris said. "We'll go with the best we can get and it will give us the best results it can give us. But in the meantime, we're going to deploy it."
An Alexeter official said he spoke with city officials and determined that the machine worked as it should, adding that testers may have not allowed enough time for the initial tests to work properly.
Salvatore Lanzilotti, the city's director of emergency services, backed up the mayor's assertion.
"The CDC has not yet validated this technology because they haven't gotten around to it but they also haven't invalidated it, they just haven't gotten around to it yet," he said.
Meanwhile, Anderson, at an afternoon news conference to reassure the public that there is no anthrax in Hawaii, said the mayor overreacted with the e-mail to city employees.
"I think that's overreacting to this issue," Anderson said. "Certainly we wouldn't go so far to say don't open your mail."
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the e-mail was sent to department heads and their secretaries without the knowledge of Harris.
The mayor had instructed his secretary to "call certain key departments," Costa said. "It was not for wide distribution, he did not expect her to do an e-mail."
Following the initial field tests, Harris and city Managing Director Ben Lee joined FBI, U.S. Postal Service, state Health, Honolulu police and fire officials in the incident command post set up in front of 925 Bethel St.
Officials closed Bethel between Nimitz Highway and King Street about 11:30 a.m. A report of another suspicious envelope at Modern Key Shop about an hour later at 1043 Bethel St. closed the rest of street.
About 100 people who were in the five-story building, including police officers and firefighters who responded to the 911 call, were forced to stay inside for the nearly three hours it took the Navy to complete its testing. The building's central air conditioning was turned off to prevent the unknown substance from spreading.
The initial results also prompted U.S. Postal Service officials to take precautions. Employees at the downtown station were quarantined after the news broke, said Edward Broglio, Honolulu district manager.
"We told them we would proceed with their decontamination, testing and treatment if the Navy test returned positive and assured them that there is ample time for treatment with antibiotics," Broglio said.
Other businesses also started to scrutinize mail more closely after the first reports, fire officials said. Until the negative confirmation from the Navy lab, HFD responded to another 21 calls from other businesses about suspicious packages.
HFD spokesman Capt. Richard Soo said confusion seemed to stem from information being transmitted over emergency broadcast frequencies, which is monitored by the media and other agencies.
"I think what happened was we broadcast over dispatch that there was a 'positive' test, and that alarmed people," said Soo. "All this time our transmissions have been about 'negative' results so it wasn't clear that the initial results were preliminary field tests that needed to be confirmed.
"It's a trial-and-error process," he said. "We hope to learn from this incident."
Star-Bulletin reporters Rod Antone, Rosemarie
Bernardo, Nelson Daranciang, Gordon Y.K. Pang
and Tim Ruel contributed to this report. It was
written by reporter B.J. Reyes.
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Many downtown workers yesterday supported Mayor Jeremy Harris' statement to employees telling them to "stop opening mail immediately" after yesterday's anthrax scare at a Honolulu office. Support follows
mayor’s e-mailThe e-mail told city workers to
not open mail after the anthrax
scare in downtownBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"You can't be too careful. I think it's great," said Kristina Osterloh, a project manager for 4charity.com. "And for it being such a scary time ... he's doing his best to keep us protected."
Osterloh was reacting to news of an internal e-mail Harris sent to city workers that eventually made its way to others.
It read: "Per the mayor -- Everyone in the city is to stop opening mail immediately. There is a positive identification of anthrax in the downtown area."
The e-mail was sent after a suspicious letter twice tested positive for anthrax. After a third test came up negative, the mayor's office issued another e-mail citing "conflicting reports of anthrax in the downtown area." It urged workers to use discretion in opening their mail.
The Navy eventually determined that the letter did not contain anthrax.
"It's better to be safe than sorry, and until anthrax is confirmed (or not), people are going to get panicked anyway," said Rob Wright, a technician with Expanets of Hawaii. The telecommunications firm was temporarily shut down while investigators closed Bethel Street.
"It is kind of scary just having this threat ... but we're going to continue operating," he said.
Wright said the mayor had a hard decision to make and that he supported his actions, including the e-mail message.
Not everyone agreed.
"You got a better chance of winning the lottery than catching anthrax," said Bradley Tamm, a bankruptcy lawyer in Pioneer Plaza. He said the call was overblown because anthrax is "not a weapon of mass destruction -- it's a weapon of mass hysteria.
"Until people realize this is a (non-issue), everybody has to have something to worry about," he said. "I worry more about tourism and getting the economy back."
Attorney Naomi Fujimoto said she understood both sides of the issue.
"I think it's a good thing to be careful, but we can't all grind to a halt," she said, adding that her downtown office continued opening mail, but with a discerning eye.
Warren Villaren, an administrative assistant in the Bank of Hawaii trust department, said he felt the mayor's statement was justified. He added that his co-workers remained "pretty calm" during the scare, describing the mood as "fearfully curious."
"Nobody's in a real panic," he said.
