Toxins Sent by Army Would be Handled at La Jolla Post Offices

Two La Jolla post offices would handle dangerous germ warfare toxins under a U.S. Army plan, California Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp said Friday, calling for further environmental study before the plan is put into action.

The U.S. Army plans to establish a biological warfare testing center in Dugway, Utah, where dangerous toxins, such as anthrax and botulism, would be shipped via registered mail to 103 research stations nationwide, Van de Kamp said at a Los Angeles news conference.

In addition to La Jolla, other potential research stations in are in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Livermore and at UCLA.

Van de Kamp said: “When I first heard of this plan, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke. Unfortunately it’s not.

Packaging Process

“The plan describes an earnest packaging process of cardboard boxes and plastic tubes. But think of what happens everyday to packages in the mail.

“The notion that mailed biological warfare toxins will be vulnerable to . . . accidents is chilling,” he added.

The attorney general said he knew of at least one instance where a dangerous substance was lost in the mail. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta sent a vial containing the Crimea Congo virus via registered mail to the Ft. Detrick Air Force Base in Maryland, but when the package arrived, the vial was not inside, he said.

Van de Kamp said he was deeply troubled that more deadly packages would be misplaced if the Utah Army base goes ahead with its plans.

The attorney general said he told the Army base its environmental impact statement, a detailed environmental study, was unacceptable because it did not outline the risks that germ warfare toxins sent through the mail pose to postal workers and citizens.

Consider Legal Action

If the U.S. Army fails to address these concerns in the final environmental study, Van de Kamp said he would consider taking legal action to stop the proposed shipments. He declined to say what legal course of action he would pursue.

The general president of the postal union, Omar Gonzalez, called the U.S. Army’s plans “ridiculous.”

“It’s just too damned dangerous . . . things always get torn up by machines, we have no control over that,” he said.

Gonzalez said that if the Army went ahead with its plan, he would urge a walkout.

“The safety of the membership comes first. I’d rather walk out than die,” the union official said.

Army officials could not be reached.