| You are here: HOME > What's New > EPA awards AFRRI scientists with highest honor | PREVIOUS HEADLINES New handbook guides medical decisions in a radiological emergency Dept. of Homeland Security medical experts visit AFRRI Ceremony welcomes new AFRRI director (2010) Unprecedented growth marks AFRRI director's tenure NRC Commissioner tours AFRRI Special assignment: The Vancouver Olympics American Nuclear Society unveils historic-landmark plaque Historic landmark plaque to be installed at defense lab AFRRI receives historic award from American Nuclear Society Iraq researchers tour AFRRI AFRRI awarded nuclear historic landmark status AFRRI leaders, other research reactor experts convene at annual conference Research pioneer touched lives, influenced future of radiation science Former AFRRI scientific director was pioneer in radiation research Researchers share latest radiation-effects findings with military medical community AFRRI scientific director elected to NCRP Scientists deliberate on diagnostics for partial-body irradiation New software to aid treatment decisions during radiation exposure incidents International experts on radiation exposure assessment to convene at AFRRI Ceremony marks change of director at AFRRI (2006) FDA clears 5-AED for human clinical studies New collaboration will develop radiation countermeasures Training for the unthinkable AFRRI employees participate in MASCAL drill EPA awards AFRRI scientists with highest honor DoD commends AFRRI for response to terrorism Ceremony welcomes new AFRRI director (2003) Revised handbook expands casualty management information Peer review validates AFRRI research of measuring radioprotection by liquid chromatography MEIR course available on handy card-size disc AFRRI launches software for radiation casualty management Chernobyl liquidators' teeth may link radiation dose and disease Individual exposure takes heat in radiation study Russian scientists take different path in search for radioprotectors |
||
What's New |
|||
EPA awards AFRRI scientists with highest honor |
|||
 |
|||
Photo: D. Morse (AFRRI) |
|||
| The Environmental Protection Agency awarded its highest honor to AFRRI research microbiologists Thomas B. Elliott, PhD, (above, left) and Michael O. Shoemaker, PhD, for their work to help inactivate deadly anthrax spores from a Washington, DC, postal facility. | |||
BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 27, 2004—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April awarded its prestigious Gold Medal for Exceptional Service to two research microbiologists at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI). Both served as part of a 19-member crisis-exemption team that evaluated methods used to inactivate deadly Bacillus anthracis spores contaminating a huge Washington, DC, U.S. Postal Service processing and distribution center. Two employees at that center died in 2001 after inhaling spores from contaminated letters. Thomas B. Elliott, PhD, and Michael O. Shoemaker, PhD, members of AFRRI’s Radiation Infection Treatment Research Team, were the only Department of Defense employees honored by the Environmental Protection Agency during 2004 with the agency’s highest honor. They were recognized for "extraordinary contributions to the safe and effective inactivation of anthrax spores contaminating the U.S. Postal Service Brentwood Processing and Distribution Center." According to media reports, on or about October 12, 2001, two envelopes containing highly refined and deadly spores of B. anthracis, the bacterial species that causes the disease of anthrax, passed through the Brentwood facility. Inhaled spores from both envelopes infected four postal employees with anthrax, and two died within days. Later, the letters were delivered to the U.S. Capitol's Hart Senate Office Building and were part of a spate of anthrax-tainted mail sent to government officials and media outlets in Washington, Florida, and New York. Occurring a month after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, contamination of the nation's mail system with anthrax-causing spores heightened fears of terrorist attacks. As of November 21, 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 18 confirmed cases, 5 suspected cases, and a total of 5 people killed by anthrax in 2001—the first confirmed deaths in more than two decades. The Brentwood center was decontaminated with the same technology used earlier at the Senate building—fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas (ClO2). According to Dr. Shoemaker, use of ClO2, itself highly lethal, was complicated by the size of the Brentwood facility (633,000 square feet); by the need to maintain a precise concentration of the gas, relative humidity, and temperature within the huge space for at least 12 hours; and by the proximity of neighborhood residents. Before the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and its contractors could use ClO2 on such a massive scale, Dr. Shoemaker explained, a crisis exemption had to be obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, which previously had not authorized ClO2 for use as a fumigant against B. anthracis spores. The agency formed its Brentwood Post Office Anthrax Crisis Exemption Team, drawing experts in many disciplines from within and from other federal agencies, including AFRRI. From June to December 2002, the EPA reviewed many technical plans proposed to inactivate the spores while ensuring public safety. The 19-member team grappled with unprecedented scientific issues: how to determine the nature and extent of B. anthracis contamination; how to set correct fumigation parameters allowing for temperature, relative humidity, gas concentration, and contact time; how to monitor inside the building to ensure that fumigation parameters were met; and how to do extensive air and surface sampling after fumigation to confirm the absence of all viable spores. The center reopened on Dec. 22, 2003, having been closed since Oct. 21, 2001. It was renamed the Curseen-Morris Mail Processing and Distribution Center at a ceremony to honor Joseph Curseen Jr. (47) and Thomas Morris Jr. (55), the two postal workers who were killed in this terrorist action. |
|||
| TOP OF PAGE | |||
|
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute
A United States Department of Defense research laboratory |