[Bonus] From the Cutting Room Floor: Anthrax Decontamination Following the 2001 Attacks

In the inaugural “From the Cutting Room Floor” — where we take parts of interviews that didn’t quite fit in our regular episodes — we talk about anthrax. Well not exactly… we talk about what happens with the chemicals that we use to kill anthrax. In 2001, some high profile people like news anchors and senators received mail laced with anthrax — a spore-forming bacteria that can be deadly. Afterwards, there were many spaces that had to be decontaminated. And Richard Corsi was tapped to study these decontaminants. How did they interact with indoor spaces? Where did they go? How long did they last for? When was it safe for people to return to these spaces? It was a multi-year study that helped explain why sometimes the spaces deemed safe after decontamination still caused harm. 

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Transcripts and episode sources at acs.org/chainreaction