Medill News Service - Published: Nov. 8, 2001

Chicago company to sterilize mail

By Patrick Cooper
Medill News Service

A Chicago-based company is rapidly preparing to sterilize mail for the United States Postal Service after winning a multimillion-dollar contract to provide the service.

With four people and others sick because of anthrax-tainted letters, the hiring of IBA has been one of many actions aimed at restoring the public's confidence in the mail.

IBA, or Ion Beam Applications, received the $2.4 million contact on Tuesday and will begin running mail through their Bridgeport, N.J., facility sometime next week, according to Mark McLoughlin, IBA's president of North America Operations.

"We're trying to do what we can to help out in this serious situation," McLoughlin said Thursday.

The recently built Bridgeport facility, which had been used to sterilize food and plastic products, is quickly being retrofitted to process the mail. With the food and plastics diverted elsewhere, IBA is prepping the plant and its workers to handle potentially hazardous material.

Once processing has begun, the facility will sanitize the mail using X-rays and electron beams, which the company says will kill anthrax and other bacteria.

While IBA employees will be doing the actual processing, "the facility is really for the U.S. Postal Service to use and process what they want," McLoughlin said. The plant will be able to process between 3,000 and 10,000 lbs. of mail an hour, depending on the type of mail, packaging and other factors.

"This is an immediate need we were able to address," McLoughlin said. The Bridgeport contract runs for three months and could be renewed. IBA is also in discussions with the Postal Service about what other sterilization measures to pursue in the future.

U.S. Postmaster General John Potter told Congress on Thursday that the service would need $3 billion for mail sanitizing and related measures to fight contaminated mail, as well as an immediate $2 billion to make up lost revenue.

Meanwhile, in Chicago and across the country, authorities are continuing tests for anthrax at postal processing and distribution centers.

"Strictly precautionary" testing was performed at the Irving Park Road facility Tuesday, the downtown Cardiss Collins and Fox Valley facilities Wednesday and the Bedford Park mail center Thursday, postal officials said.

"We have no reason or evidence to suggest that there's any anthrax in any facility in Chicago," said Jim Mruk, the Bloomingdale-based spokesman for the Postal Service's Great Lakes Region. The testing has not required any area post offices to close.

Preliminary results of last week's testing at the Carol Stream facility have come back negative, and officials are awaiting the final report.

Next week the mail processing plant in Palatine will be tested, as well as possibly the International Service Center by O'Hare International Airport.