Steam Iron Can Kill Anthrax, Expert Claims

An expert on germ warfare is telling Americans to use a steam iron on the mail if they’re afraid to open it.

Ken Alibek said the combination of heat and moisture would kill any anthrax lurking in an envelope.

“If you are scared, just iron this letter,” he said at a Capitol Hill briefing this week. “After that, they [the spores] become harmless.” Microwaves are less effective than steam ironing because they don’t emit moist heat, he said.

Alibek defected to the United States in 1992 after serving as deputy head of the huge Biopreparat venture linked to germ warfare in the former Soviet Union.