A $2,500 Addition to Your Crisis Cache

For the family that already has matching gas masks, a stash of Cipro and haz-mat suits in the hall closet--why not a decontamination shower system?

To do its part for hysteria marketing, a Canadian company last week sent out a press release announcing that the “scope of need” for its $2,500 air-secure shelters was now “staggering.”

The lightweight plastic shelters unfold, accordion-like, to provide a 10-by-8-foot shelter with a shower and an air-cleaning system. After stripping off your clothes and showering, the company says, you exit the shelter with “drastically improved chances of avoiding contamination.”

One hitch in the system is that, because anthrax spores are colorless and odorless, most people have no idea they’ve been exposed until symptoms appear or some foul play has been discovered.

*

If the air-secure shelters don’t do it for you, here’s more: Home anthrax tests could be on retailers’ shelves by Thanksgiving, but some experts are warning about the possibility of false positive results that might only add to the recent anthrax anxiety.

Vital Living Products, a North Carolina-based maker of water-testing kits, is developing a home anthrax test, said Donald Pondrebarac, the firm’s president and chief executive.

The company began working on the anthrax test kit the day after the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center--and before the recent rash of anthrax scares in the United States and other countries, Pondrebarac said.

Vital Living Products, of Matthews, N.C., sells a water testing kit for coliform bacteria through home improvement stores under the PurTest. brand and has supplied bacterial testing kits to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the past.

The PurTest Anthrax Test, is expected to sell for $19 to $25, the company said. It will be capable of testing for anthrax on surfaces and in the water and air.

The company said it has received a flood of inquiries about the test kit since an article Thursday in the Wall Street Journal about its plans to sell the kits.

The kits would not be able to tell if a person has become infected with anthrax but could determine if a letter or home air conditioning system, for example, contain the bacteria. The kits would not require government testing or approval, as is the case with all home test kits that are noninvasive.