# At-home anti-anthrax mail handing procedure suggestion?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 23, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100 "2001-10-23T15:42:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/1 "2001-10-23T15:42:52Z")
1. Make sure you have an outdoor mailbox, block off any door slip mailbox slots.
2. With gloves and a dust mask, take the mail and put it inside a plastic bag.
3. Empty the plasitc bag contents into a freezer, and leave sit overnight. Place the plastic bag inside another and and dispose.
4. Thaw out the mail and open. The low temperatures should kill any anthrax bacteria.
OR
Same as above BUT:
1. Empty the bag contents into a microwave oven and microwave the mail, then take it out and open it. The high temperatures should kill the anthrax.
Does temperature affect anthrax? Or am I all wet. . . .
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### Author:  [@Daikona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daikona)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/2 "2001-10-23T16:54:59Z")
My personal suggestion would be “realize that the odds are significantly better that you will be struck by lightning on the way to the mailbox than that you will be infected with anthrax from your mail.”
If you need to do something to feel safer, ironing won’t do it.
[http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/iron.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/iron.htm)
Some information on anthrax can be found here: [http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/anthrax.htm](http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/anthrax.htm)
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### Author:  [@Cargogal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cargogal)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/3 "2001-10-23T17:08:44Z")
Start small, enclosed fire.
Place mail in fire.
Once mail is reduced to carbon, it is probably safe to handle.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/4 "2001-10-23T19:14:00Z")
[nitpick]
> [@](#):
>
> Start small, enclosed fire.
> Place mail in fire.
> Once mail is reduced to carbon, it is probably safe to handle.
Technically, a fire is far more likely to oxidize your mail than reduce it. If you really want it reduced to carbon, you need to heat the mail to a high termperature in an oxygen free atmosphere. This will produce a charcoal like substance that is anthrax free.
[/nitpick]
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/5 "2001-10-23T19:24:15Z")
You have read the announcement at the top of the forum page, haven’t you?
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Vinnie Virginslayer \*
> **The low temperatures should kill any anthrax bacteria.**
Bacteria in general are not killed in the freezer. They go into a sort of dormancy.
> [@](#):
>
> **3. Empty the bag contents into a microwave oven and microwave the mail, then take it out and open it. The high temperatures should kill the anthrax.**
Probably not. See the earlier thread [What kills anthrax?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92908)
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### Author:  [@jonfromdenver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonfromdenver)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/6 "2001-10-23T19:49:14Z")
if you shoot yourself in the head, there is **no possible way** for terrorists to kill you with anthrax.
true, is it not?
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### Author:  [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/7 "2001-10-23T20:09:48Z")
Have mail carrier put mail in plastic box. Don’t touch mail. At end of week, put lid on plastic box and set aside, putting out new plastic box. Leave sealed box of mail outside to avoid contaiminating the house. After one more week, if mail carrier is OK, open box and read mail. If mail carrier is sick or dead call 911 for disposal of your mail. Repeat weekly.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/8 "2001-10-23T23:25:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by starfish \*
> \*\*If mail carrier is sick or dead call 911 for disposal of your mail. Repeat weekly. \*\*
This method is kind of hard on the mail carriers, eh? 😉
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### Author:  [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/9 "2001-10-23T23:39:47Z")
I’m not trying to trivialise the OP. I realise that the question wouldn’t have been asked if the OP wasn’t scared.
Simplest answer? Say goodbye to junkmail forever (you know you wanted to do that anyway). Just as you know not to open email attachments from people you don’t know, don’t open letters from people you don’t know or from whom you aren’t expecting correspondence.
And please, **please** read [Lynn’s announcement](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3). There’s a whole internet full of factual information about anthrax out there. Some of us what more detailed scientific information than others.
I’ll add [this link](http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/anthrax/default.htm) to the many others which have already been provided.
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### Author:  [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/10 "2001-10-23T23:42:49Z")
And one of these days I’ll learn the art of picking up my typos on “preview”…
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### Author:  [@tsunamisurfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsunamisurfer)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2001, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/11 "2001-10-23T23:51:38Z")
(Sigh) **As I said in another related thread…**
A mild bleach solution is exactly what the special environmental cleanup crews are presently using to destroy the anthrax spores in contaminated offices, and officials who actually know what the hell they’re talking about–as opposed to the overwhelming majority of respondents in this nutty thread who are on the verge of hysteria–proclaim bleach quite effective. If the bush leaguers of Snopes want to argue with CDC’s vast array of world-class experts, so be it.
Again, those in the know (CDC, etc.) assert that those who proclaim anthrax indestructible are wrong. Bleach will do the job nicely and antibiotics will treat _most_ infected people. If you’re so inclined, you should be able to sterilize your mail by misting the envelopes with a bleach solution from a spray bottle.
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### Author:  [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2001, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/12 "2001-10-24T00:59:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by reprise \*
> \*\*I’m not trying to trivialise the OP. I realise that the question wouldn’t have been asked if the OP wasn’t scared.
>
> \*\*
“Scared” is not really the word. I’d say “cautious”.
Loved the “wait a week for the postal carrier to die” suggestion. One piece of advice: he might get a LITTLE insulted when he sees a big pile of mail on your porch. Make sure you leave him a nice Christmas gift if he lives! 😃
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### Author:  [@johnson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnson)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2001, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-home-anti-anthrax-mail-handing-procedure-suggestion/89100/13 "2001-10-24T02:24:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> A mild bleach solution is exactly what the special environmental cleanup crews are presently using to destroy the anthrax spores in contaminated offices, and officials who actually know what the hell they’re talking about–as opposed to the overwhelming majority of respondents in this nutty thread who are on the verge of hysteria–proclaim bleach quite effective.
Well, not according to the report on _ATC_ this afternoon on the island in the Aral Sea contaminated by anthrax. The Russians tried bleach, and the spores were unaffected. Obviously, they were engineered for biological warfare, and so may be hardier than your average anthrax spores. Then again, we don’t know exactly what these spores are and what (if) they were designed to do.
But I agree, the majority of people, or at least media types, are on the verge of hysteria.