Ricin scare shows gaps

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points to flaws in reaction time

to threats involving deadly poisons.

More than two years after this nation reacted belatedly to real threats involving deadly anthrax, we have learned this: We've got tremendous room for improvement. That's the inescapable lesson from the discovery in mid-October of a vial of deadly ricin and athreatening note at a postal distribution center off Pelham Road.

The reaction to the discovery of what was labeled as ricin was sluggish. It raises questions about the ability of law enforcement and public authorities to react with life-saving speed when confronted with a credible threat of bioterrorism. It took a week for the suspicious substance to be tested so it could be conclusively identified as a poison. And then it took another day for the public to be informed of the incident.

That's an unacceptable lag at almost every step in this process.

The timeline detailed earlier this week by Greenville News reporter Tim Smith was this: A postal worker at the mail distribution center discovered the package containing the vial of ricin and a note at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 15. The supervisor was not told until 8 a.m. The Greenville Sheriff's Office was called at 1:30 p.m. A deputy took the package and transferred it to an FBI agent somewhere between Columbia and Greenville.

The package was examined by the State Law Enforcement Division, then sent the next day to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. (DHEC didn't have the capability to run its own ricin tests until Oct. 23.) So DHEC sent samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta on Oct. 20. CDC positively identified the substance as ricin on Oct. 21. The public and many other emergency agencies were informed of this matter the next day, Smith reported.

As Harris Pastides, a University of South Carolina epidemiologist and dean of the Arnold School of Public Health, told this newspaper, this ricin incident was "an unfortunate way to practice." He added, "Clearly, we're not where we should be."

Indeed, this is not where we should be. A legitimate fear is that this incident was downplayed because it was concluded that a disgruntled trucker, not an international terrorist, was making a threat. As some astute readers of this newspapers have pointed out, a terrorist threat is a terrorist threat, regardless of the motivation or national origin of the person behind that threat.

This incident proves a need for more education for local law enforcement and postal workers, faster identification of possible agents of bioterrorism and better coordination among law enforcement and public health agencies. We must do better.