January 2003 ■ Optics & Photonics News 23

T he first of five mysterious anthraxdeaths late in 2001 took place half astate away from Ocean Optics’

Dunedin, Florida, headquarters. Healthofficials reported that a contaminated let-ter had killed Robert Stevens, an editor at aBoca Raton newspaper. Within weeks, twoWashington, D.C., postal workers, a NewYork City hospital employee and an elder-ly Connecticut woman also had died of in-halation anthrax.

Researchers at Ocean Optics, a corpo-rate member of OSA, followed news ofthe attacks with special interest. Theyhad been developing a spectrometer-based system to check the effectiveness ofsterilizers in hospitals. The same system,they decided, could be adapted for an-thrax detection. Within weeks of the at-tacks, they had developed a portable bac-terial endospore screening system thatcosts about $5000 and fits in a briefcase-sized carrier.

“We thought it would be a way to getsomething out there” to help first respon-ders who are charged with quickly identi-fying deadly spores, Ocean Optics Presi-dent Michael J. Morris said.

Nearly a year later, Morris signed up fora U.S. Department of Commerce-spon-sored technology expo in Washington,D.C. The event was designed to bring to-gether government and industry “to ex-plore technologies that will provide forour Nation’s homeland security and de-fense,” Secretary of Commerce DonaldEvans wrote in a letter to attendees.

But Morris discovered a problem during the two-day show, which drewmore than 7000 people. A few foreign vis-

itors stopped by his booth to buy his de-vice. American passers-by, on the otherhand, said “they were interested, but theycouldn’t buy it,” Morris said.

The reason? The government’s Officeof Science and Technology Policy in Julyhad issued a memo discouraging the pur-chase of new equipment that tests for an-thrax. The memo also recommended“that every agency terminate any pur-chase orders… that have been issued forthis purpose.”

The memo was issued based on con-cerns that certain handheld, im-munobased systems tested by the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion are not reliable, said Larry Kerr, direc-tor of bioterrorism research and develop-ment with the Office of Homeland Secu-rity. The Ocean Optics system was notamong those tested, he said.

For Morris, the news was troubling be-cause it raised questions about the feder-al government’s relationship with scien-tists. Ocean Optics had invested about$100,000 in its anthrax detection system.The firm, which employs 90 and hasabout $18 million in sales annually, lostmoney on the project, Morris said, be-cause the government memo made thesystem commercially not viable. “Ourhands are tied,” he said. “The problem isthey lumped us all under one umbrellaand said we’re no good… It stifles newtechnology.”

The news troubled Dena Briscoe aswell.

Briscoe, a 22-year veteran of the U.S.Postal Service, worked in the Brentwoodmail center in Washington, D.C., before it

Fighting Terrorism or Red Tape?

Optics Firm HitsObstacle In Bringing Sensor Device to Market

Facing page: An Ocean Optics researcher tests the company's anthrax detection device by collect-ing spectra from Bacillus globigii and exposing them to a pulsed YAG laser.

“The problem is theylumped us all underone umbrella and saidwe’re no good... It sti-fles new technology.”

— Michael J. MorrisOcean Optics President

Kim Douglass

1047-6938/03/01/0022/4-$15.00 © Optical Society of America

was closed because of anthrax contamina-tion. Two employees from that center diedin 2001 as a result of exposure to thespores. Briscoe leads a group called“Brentwood Exposed,” founded to offersupport to Brentwood employees andtheir families and to ensure post officesaround the country are safe in this newera of bioterror. “We needed a voice,” shesaid.

The workers also need access to anyanthrax detection devices that mightprove effective, she said. “A lot of peopleare uncomfortable going into the buildingwithout a device you can test on or some-thing that can detect [anthrax] as themail’s going through,” Briscoe said. “Ithink it’s a disservice for the governmentnot to try anything that’s available…We’restill on the front line. The same thing canhappen, and we’re not protected.”

Testing for anthrax

Ocean Optics’ endospore screening systemdetects fluorescence from bacterial en-dospores. It tests for dipicolinic acid(DPA), which is unique to bacterial en-dospores and is extracted from them whenthey’re added to a terbium-based reagent.

The U.S. Army developed the reagent. Al-though the test is not specific to anthrax,there are only two genera of bacteriaknown to produce endospores, includingBacillus anthracis.

The test involves swirling a small sam-ple in a plastic cuvette containing thereagent, and then exposing it to UV lightprovided by a pulsed xenon lamp. Thetemporal and spectral patterns producedby the bacillus endospores are highly spe-cific, and software displays the resultswithin seconds of analysis, Morris said.

Research of this kind for homeland se-curity should continue, despite the memo,the Office of Homeland Security’s Kerrsaid. The problem is that of the handful ofportable anthrax-detection devices on themarket at the time of the attacks, manycouldn’t be trusted, he said. They offeredfalse positives and negatives. First respon-ders without military training and equip-ment do not necessarily know how toproperly and safely use the devices, Kerrsaid. And some have been marketed basedon “outrageous claims that we know arescientifically false.

“The need to get a stop-procurementmemo out was pushed very heavily by thelawyers who said if the government knew

24 Optics & Photonics News ■ January 2003

HOMELAND DEFENSE

“Anything that canhelp us to know asearly as possiblethat anthrax is in the mail, we need that.”

— Dena Briscoe U.S. Postal Service

January 2003 ■ Optics & Photonics News 25

something was dangerous,” it should noti-fy the public, Kerr said.

Another concern raised by the scientif-ic review was that some devices, includingOcean Optics’, have a detection level of100,000 spores. “You want it to be muchmore sensitive,” Kerr said. “Eight [thou-sand] to 10,000 spores will kill you.”

Morris doesn’t agree with this argu-ment, however, and said that in fact, sys-tems designed to detect just a handful ofspores—or even 10,000—would be muchmore likely to report falsely.

“Ten thousand spores is one dose, andno terrorist is going to send one dose,” hesaid. By having a limit of 100,000, a firstresponder who gets a positive reading us-ing the spectrometer technology is verylikely to have stumbled upon anthrax,Morris said. “Unless you intentionallytried to hoax us, we would never get a falsepositive.”

Having multiple testing options is im-portant for those emergency crews whoarrive on a scene to test a suspicious sub-stance, said Maj. Julie Bentz, a science ad-visor for the National Guard Civil SupportTeams, which respond to chemical, biolog-ical, radiological and nuclear incidentsaround the country.

“During this time of heightened con-cern, we don’t want to be in a positionwhere the incident commander is deniedaccess to every available resource to maketimely decisions for the health and well-being of the public,” she said.

The person in charge of handling a sus-picious substance “needs information atsome level telling him this is a problem orit’s talcum powder,” Bentz said.

Not every device might be foolproof,Bentz agreed. But “the smart way of de-tecting biological agents is a layered ap-proach. If I’ve got a lot of different tools inmy toolbox, I can advise them a little bitbetter.”

Seeking a seal of approval

Kerr said he knows first responders are ea-ger for access to information and equip-ment. That’s why federal officials are de-veloping a system to validate portable an-thrax detection devices, he said. The idea isto provide a kind of “good housekeepingseal of approval” for manufacturers want-ing to market such devices.

Such a system could be applied to otherkinds of homeland security-related de-vices, but anthrax-detection is the first cat-

egory being investigated because anthraxremains the highest continuing threat,Kerr said. His office has been working tosign off on a large biohazard detector sys-tem for the U.S. Postal Service, for exam-ple, to help ease the fears of employeessuch as Briscoe.

If that system is ap-proved, detectors wouldbe placed in 292 mail pro-cessing and distributioncenters nationwide, saidPostal Service spokesmanGerry Kreienkamp. Thesystems will provide con-stant air monitoring inthe centers where mail issorted and shipped to lo-cal postal centers. Thedetectors will cost $300million.

Portable detectorsin every facility alsowould make employeesfeel more secure,Briscoe said. “If we hadhand-helds for themanagers, that wouldbe helpful,” she said, inpart because not everypiece of mail passesthrough those largerdistribution centers. “Anything that canhelp us to know as early as possible thatanthrax is in the mail, we need that.”

But the validation system for suchsmaller detection devices could takemonths to put into place, Kerr said.

“By no means are we discouragingtechnology,” he said. “Let’s just work to-gether to find the best possible use for it…unfortunately, it is just taking us sometime.”

This pace is part of what frustratesMorris.

“Nothing is going to stay the samefrom quarter to quarter,” he said. “We aredeveloping all these methodologies for an-thrax, and then we’re going to be on to adifferent problem.

“Selling any kind of product requires atremendous amount of effort. If you havea government agency that makes thatwhole process more difficult … It takes thewind out of our sails.”

Kim Douglass (kdougl@osa.org) is assistant manag-ing editor of Optics & Photonics News.

HOMELAND DEFENSE

One of several anthrax-tainted en-velopes sent to Capitol Hill in 2001.

FBI 2001 Press Release