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World National |
Postal Sterilization May Harm DrugsWASHINGTON (AP) - The doses of radiation the Postal Service plans to use to sterilize mail that may contain anthrax could destroy some prescription drugs and other medical products, a federal health expert said Friday. The Postal Service pledged to find a way to separate shipments from mail-order pharmacies so that drugs aren't irradiated.
But that may not be enough to protect all medical shipments, Food and Drug Administration physicist Orhan Suleiman, who is advising the Postal Service on irradiation, told The Associated Press. As an example, he recently showed postal workers a common test for colon cancer - the fecal occult blood test. Americans mail a stool sample to their doctors in a small, unmarked envelope - not a special package that postal workers would know to keep away from radiation. Would 5.6 million rads of radiation, the dose being used, affect the results of that test? Suleiman said the FDA has no way to know - it's never been tested. Suleiman also told a State Department employee not to use a prescription drug that an embassy had irradiated in a diplomatic mail pouch, because, again, there was no way to know if the medication was harmed. ``It's very obvious that many pharmaceuticals can't be irradiated, especially not at the radiation doses being used here,'' he said. ``We have been drumming this message home.'' So far, only a small portion of letters - not the packages most medical products would be shipped in - is being irradiated: mail gathered from anthrax-tainted post offices and government buildings. But the plan is to eventually sterilize far more mail. The Postal Service is developing a way to identify and isolate shipments from mail-order pharmacies so that drugs are not irradiated, said spokesman Jerry Kreienkamp. It would not be difficult, ``when we know who the mailer is,'' to separate a special shipment, he said. After all, drugs aren't the only issue - post offices also are working to separate film and other items that irradiation will harm. But Kreienkamp couldn't answer how the postal service would handle other shipments, such as Internet companies that often mail a bottle of pills in an unmarked padded envelope or patients mailing medical samples from home. ``These are all new processes we're going to have to work out,'' he said. FDA's Suleiman has rejected postal workers' initial suggestions that FDA certify which products are OK to irradiate. An informal survey of major drug manufacturers by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association confirms his suspicious that there simply is no scientific data on which to determine the safety of zapping medications. Electron beam technology is used to kill germs in meat and other foods, but has never been used on medications. Scientists do know weaker ultraviolet radiation can affect certain medical products - mere light can turn hydrogen peroxide into water, for example. To know which products can withstand irradiation would require testing ``absolutely product by product,'' said Janet Trunzo, a physicist with the Advanced Medical Technology Association, which represents makers of diagnostic tests and other medical equipment. ``Some materials are very resistant to radiation ... whereas others may be very sensitive.'' If irradiating mail takes off, Sulieman suspects industry will create radiation-proof packaging for drugs, but that's not here yet. Meanwhile, medical manufacturers are seeking meetings with the FDA to determine what, if anything, they should do while the post office figures out how to use irradiation. |
