The Anthrax Cleanup on Capitol Hill

This documentary tells the story of how EPA, the National Institutes of Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Center for Communicable Diseases (CDC), and other federal military and civilian agencies, working under severe time pressure and in the full glare of intensive media coverage, collaborated to solve a scientific and engineering challenge never before faced -- the decontamination of an entire building contaminated with deadly anthrax spores.

Audio Track - The Complete Interview - 33 minutes

On Tuesday, September 18, 2001, just one week after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, letters containing anthrax spores were received by several news media offices and Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle (D - South Dakota).  A similar letter containing anthrax was addressed to Senator Patrick Leahy (D - Vermont) was misrouted and later found in a mail processing facility in Virginia.  As a result, five people died of inhalation anthrax and 16 others were sickened, the Hart Senate Office Building and other Senate facilities and several mail processing facilities were contaminated and had to be evacuated.  This documentary tells the story of how EPA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Center for Communicable Diseases (CDC), and other federal military and civilian agencies, working under severe time pressure and in the full glare of intensive media coverage, collaborated to solve a scientific and engineering challenge never before faced -- the decontamination of an entire building contaminated with deadly anthrax spores.

THE INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS

The individual "chapters" of the discussion are available for viewing individually as is the complete interview (33 minutes).

Chapter 1: Introduction: A New Challenge for EPA (10 minutes)

Working under severe time pressure and under intense scrutiny by a nation still reeling from the 9/11 attacks just one week earlier, EPA and an interagency task force are given a challenge never before encountered by anyone any where -- cleaning up an entire building contaminated with deadly anthrax spores.

Chapter 2: Search for an Effective Clean-up Method (6 minutes)

The response team devises sampling protocols, finds and registers an effective pesticide, and designs and tests a delivery system that is safe and effective in a modern office building.  Equally important, learning quickly from the initial confusion, EPA and the Coast Guard pioneer the now standard “incident command structure.”

Chapter 3: Working Against an Immovable Deadline (8 minutes)

Working seven days a week and 18 hours a day while overcoming obstacles  ranging from hidden rooms to sudden breaches in containment, the response team begins the clean-up.  Among the biggest challenges faced -- explaining good science in the face of rising pressure to finish by a set date.

Chapter 4: Crossing the Finish Line (9 minutes)

Surviving challenges ranging from hidden rooms to sudden containment breaches to emergency, middle-of-the-night forays to Home Depot, the clean-up team delivers and the Senate office buildings reopen on schedule.  Attention then turns to lessons learned.

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