Companies coy over anthrax threat

Italian postal workers wear gloves as they handle envelopes at an office in Turin

By CNN Business Correspondent Charles Hodson

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European companies are holding their cards close to their chests when it comes to precautions against anthrax -- but the impression is, they don't hold too many aces.

The continuing run of confirmed cases of the disease in the United States have their European echo: a rash of hoaxes and scares, none of them so far proving to be a genuine case.

But whereas governments are taking the threat very seriously, and have been up front about their determination to be fully prepared for a biological attack, companies seem coy by comparison.

CNN spoke to 10 of Europe's largest companies about the measures they've taken to ensure their employees do not fall victim to a terrorist attack using anthrax spores. None of them would go into detail -- and in fact one or two make it their policy never to discuss security with outsiders -- but the overall results were encouraging.

Security is clearly a high priority for companies, and measures to protect employees have been stepped up since last month's terror attacks in the United States: more security guards, more thorough use of surveillance cameras, a ban on travel to certain destinations and an ongoing review of the precautions being taken. "Common sense prevails" was the general watchword.

But no company contacted by CNN mentioned one area highlighted by security advisers as potentially critical: air conditioning systems.

If anthrax spores can somehow be introduced into air conditioning systems by a determined terrorist, they will be very quickly distributed around a building, infecting more workers than they would if confined to, say, an area where mail is opened.

To contain any infection, companies need to fit special filters capable of trapping spores that are only one or two microns -- millionths of a meter or thousandths of a millimeter -- in diameter. But if they're doing it, they're keeping quiet about it.

To a large extent, though, Franklin D. Roosevelt's old saying, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," is not lost on European business leaders. After all, there have been no confirmed cases of anthrax outside the United States, so the problem has to do with perception and psychology, rather than a demonstrable threat.

Industrial lobbies and chambers of commerce have tended to emphasise the need for business to avoid the impression they're cowed by the threat of a terrorist attack using biological weapons.

"Business must carry on," says Richard Bate, the London-based representative of the International Chamber of Commerce. "Obviously there are security precautions that have got to be taken -- people have got to look after their mail rooms, front desk security and so on -- but they must carry on."

Contrast that with the more proactive attitude of Britain's health authorities. After 32 years of conflict in Northern Ireland and numerous attacks on the British mainland, the UK has extensive experience of handling violent terrorism. Its emergency services have dealt effectively with the recent rash of hoaxes and false alarms involving suspect white powder.

But the government's philosophy has been to maximise the risk rather than minimise it. Its chief medical ddviser, Liam Donaldson, accepts that anthrax is a psychological rather than a biological threat, but citizens are now being informed that the government is thinking about how to handle attacks involving botulism, smallpox or plague.

In other words, the government is effectively saying to those that will listen: "Anthrax may have proved an illusory threat -- but just think about what a terrorist could do with ugly diseases like these, that spread faster and are harder to treat than anthrax."

It's not a message many companies will be peddling to their employees. In Britain, at least, managements know that one of their greatest assets is the traditional "stiff upper lip" -- the supposed capacity of British people to weather crises without losing their cool.

The challenge for companies is to keep their operations running as smoothly as possible while reassuring their employees that everything is being done to reduce the inevitable risk of terrorism -- and to keep that upper lip stiff.