Determining risk, working at the post office

I work in a small town post office. I don't feel that I am in much danger yet but that could change. It is easy to see how vulnerable I am.

people around here just laugh as well at the risks. then they also drive over the speed limit on the icy roads and go into the ditch and want the county to sand all the roads or di-ice with the magnesium cholide and cyanide solution. go figure.


i would try and get a concensus with your other employees to get a standard thing going for anything that is out of the ordinary and plan on not hanging around to see whats going on if a hazard happens. you are in a high risk position and should cover your bases. plus missoula has a bunch of people from that area of the world presently. even a professor of chemistry at the u of missoula is from there i believe. so how do you like them apples?


you can see how the govt. responed by the old standard of saying no harm to the public. they totally let all the postal workers down but did what they always do, is that they dont do anythiing that may cause a panic until the problem surfaces. then its always too late. remember at 3 mile island. they constantly said no danger to the public as radiation spread. same thing with the dioxins in upstate n.y. and look at up here in libby,mt. they did the same thing until the school playground was full of asbestos and people were testing positive for problems. then grace went bankrupt of course.

Ed,


All the mail personnel are required to wear gloves where I work. My preference is N-Dex nitrile medical examination gloves. These are powder free non-sterile gloves. They make your hands sweat but after a while you get used to that. I work in Cambridge MA and there are scares all the time around here. It's a different world now since sept 11th. But what the hell are you going to do quit your job or work yourself into a frenzy because someone flew out of boston and crashed into ny. Just pay attention to what your doing and handling with a tight eye. I've worked in a lab all my life so I'm used to wearing gloves, masks, smocks, etc. The normal people will have to pay attention to detail that they haven't paid attention to in a long time because things have become routine and SAFE!!! Well SAFE is over now it's time to go back to work with safety measures in the forefront of yours and hopefully the person next's to yours mind.


enuf paul

I have sort of ignored the risk myself, but am starting to pay more attention to it. You can't be paranoid, but small towns are not immune from problems. Anyone anywhere could be affected by the next terrorist attack, or any copycat attacks or whatever that local nutcases decide to do. We kind of laughed when our little podunk county issued mail handling procedures after the anthrax deal started. I don't think people are laughing now. I am also concerned that small towns might someday be specifically targeted, but I don't want to either sound paranoid or give anyone ideas.