White powder at Finance and Deregulation

futto said :

The last anthrax attacks were in late 2001.

This response to “white powder” is grossly in excess of any potential threat, especially considering there was never any attacks outside the US.

I do wonder how many more decades we will have to put up with this hysteria and overreaction. Will my children experience this when they are in the workforce, even though every investigation turns up nothing?

Yes it is quite correct that there were no anthrax attacks using the mail outside of the USA but toxins such as Ricin have turned up in envelopes in a number of countries not to mention toxic chemicals including attacks in Australia resulting in injuries.

The Commonwealth Government has recognised this threat in the new PSPF (Protective Security Policy Framework) and have mandated the requirement to provide a safe working environment from threats including ‘white powder’ incidents. This document is available on the Attorney General’s website for public viewing.

The simple reality is when the substance is discovered the nature of it is not known. The majority of the envelope contents are designed to scare and disrupt but it only takes one with harmful contents to unsettle the workplace. Apathy against this threat plays into the hands of the disgruntled individual. Training and equipment is the way to combat this issue which is more extensive than many realise or know about.

eyeLikeCarrots said :

How do you think your children will react when someone coughs up a lung after drowning in their own blood, the one time a white powder scare turns out to be no-duff ?

Same way I’ll feel when the airliner I am on blows up because every passenger wasn’t stripped naked and handcuffed before being allowed onboard, or I am killed in a car accident because speed limits are not reduced to 10km/h.

Of course, there is always a balance between what can be done to make us safer, and what should.

More likley its nose candy leaking from the nose of some 1st year graduate.

What would you do if you opened an envelop at work and all this white page came out and deposited itself all over you

Aparently the powder was arranged in suspicious lines on a mirror in the toilets.

Far too many glass coffee tables

andym said :

NO-DUFF….. Grrrrrr. Reckon we should use “Fair Dinkum” instead. Beaudy.

You reckon??

NO-DUFF….. Grrrrrr. Reckon we should use “Fair Dinkum” instead. Beaudy.

So “Hide a packet of flour in the mailroom day” is cancelled?

Hugh Lews said :

Agree 100%

After nearly 10 years it’s had a more lasting affect than anything that happened on 9/11.

You might find a few people in Iraq and Afghanistan that disagree with you on that point.