Ricin handling spurs new bioterror response

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Graham said Homeland Security officials have assured him the government will improve written procedures and how they coordinate with local agencies. The senator said it was clear that some officials involved in the handling of the ricin discovered at a regional mail facility in Greenville did not understand guidelines, called protocols, for responding to potential acts of bioterrorism.

"It showed a lack of protocol, lack of evidentiary protocol from the law enforcement side and a breakdown in informing the public and the workforce about potential exposures," he told The Greenville News.

The government's commitment to improve its procedures follows reporting by The News that revealed gaps in the response. Officials told the newspaper that investigators weren't called for almost 11 hours after ricin was discovered at the postal distribution center that serves the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.

The public and local emergency and health officials weren't informed of the potential threat until seven days after it was found, the newspaper reported.

Officials also told the newspaper that the deputy who responded to the call did not know what ricin was -- even though it is on the federal government's list of potential bioterrorism threats. The News also reported that the postal center, which processes as many as 20,000 pieces a mail a day for distribution across the United States, remained in operation for a week after the discovery.

The ricin was in a vial that was clearly marked as containing the deadly poison and was in a package that contained a threatening note, officials told the newspaper. The federal government did not test the vial until almost a week after its discovery , officials said.

"Looking back, it just wasn't done in a way that you would like for the system as a whole," Graham said. "All I can say is a lot of this we're just learning by doing. I'm hopeful that this will be an experience that makes the system better."

Jerry McKiernan, a spokesman for the postal service, said the agency acted appropriately, but he also said federal agencies are trying to improve coordination.

No one has been arrested in the incident, which is being investigated by the FBI.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this year that ricin, a substance more deadly than nerve gas, was a potential tool for terrorists.

Although no one was hurt from the ricin, experts and residents have told the newspaper the government's response exposed weaknesses in the nation's system for handling a bioterrorism event.

Many of the agencies involved have denied they mishandled their response. Postal officials and those with the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense said they couldn't discuss the incident in detail because it remains an active criminal investigation.

"We learned a lot about coordinating communications on the federal level and with the state," Homeland Security spokesman Larry Jackson said, declining to elaborate.

According to authorities' previous accounts, the ricin was discovered inside a letter at the mail center at about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, a Wednesday. The letter drew the attention of a postal worker because it was marked "Ricin - caution - poison" and had no postmark or address.

But a supervisor was not told until 8 a.m. and law enforcement wasn't called until 1:30 that afternoon.

The Greenville County Sheriff's Department sent a deputy untrained in the handling of hazardous materials. He called for help and a second deputy who was trained came and packaged the letter for safe transport.

The first deputy then took it to an FBI agent, who then delivered it to the State Law Enforcement Division. The next day, officials have said, the package was turned over to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, who contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The CDC, unlike DHEC at the time, had tests to confirm if the substance was ricin.

With no reported cases of illness tied to possible ricin symptoms, DHEC officials have told The News, the health agencies imposed no rush in sending the substance to be tested. DHEC tested for other possible substances, and then sent the package to the CDC on Monday. CDC received the package on Tuesday and tested it the same day, confirming it was the deadly poison. The following day, hospitals and the public first learned of the package and its deadly contents.

During the week's wait, the mail handling center continued to process 20,000 pieces of mail a day for distribution across the United States.

The ricin incident comes two years after a series of anthrax-laden letters terrorized the nation, infecting 18 people and killing five.

Federal officials then were criticized for not quickly examining a Washington D.C. postal facility where some of the anthrax letters were processed. Two Washington-area postal workers died and three other postal workers were hospitalized from the anthrax attacks. Lawmakers at the time said officials should have moved quicker to offer testing and antibiotics to postal workers and to evacuate a Washington-area mail center where some of the letters were processed.

McKiernan, the postal service spokesman, said he does not believe the ricin incident had any similarities.

"It's demonstrably different, but I'm just not at liberty to explain how," he said.

Just as in the anthrax cases, there have been no arrests in the ricin case. Officials say they cannot talk about the investigation, which was initiated by South Carolina's Joint Terrorism Task Force, made up of FBI and SLED agents.

Last month, the FBI administered polygraph tests to postal workers and others, the president of the local postal workers union told The News. One truck driver stopped his test and his computer was confiscated later, the union president said.

Since the incident, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has been approved to test for ricin on its own and has the chemicals to do so.

DHEC Spokesman Thom Berry said the agency's epidemiological teams worked well in interviewing postal workers and the process would be used as a guide in the event of future incidents.

"We will continue to work closely with all our partners in any investigation that poses a threat to the public's health," Berry said.