IS ANTHRAX A THREAT?; OFFICIALS LEARN FROM RECENT HOAXES.

Byline: Steve Carney Daily News Staff Writer

The recent anthrax contamination scares in Los Angeles taught emergency officials two important lessons: The deadly bacteria simply are not that easy to spread or catch, and officials are well-prepared regardless.

Because every threat so far has been a hoax and the chances of widespread contamination are so remote, safety officials say they plan to scale back their responses to similar incidents in the future.

``We just don't want to play into the hands of someone creating a hoax and creating a fear level that isn't necessary,'' said Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba.

If anything good has come from these threats in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere, it is that they are forcing companies to develop disaster response plans and giving police and public health officials a chance to test their training and ability to work in concert.

``Each time we meet, it's easier, it's more fluid,'' Alba said. But ``God help us if we have a real disaster while we're involved in one of these phony calls.''

A threat of biological terrorism, an evacuation and a search by hazardous-materials teams - this scene played out Dec. 17 at a Westwood office building, the next day at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills, then Dec. 21 at the Municipal and Superior courthouses in Van Nuys and again over the weekend at a nightclub in Pomona.

A more vague threat of chemical contamination was called in Wednesday at the Chatsworth office of Time Warner Cable and found to be false.

L.A.'s threats of anthrax contamination reflect what the FBI says is a trend across the nation. And every time, tests showed no sign of the anthrax bacteria.

``It's actually very, very hard to transmit,'' said Dr. Laurene Mascola, chief of the acute communicable disease control unit with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. ``It would have to be very, very sophisticated for someone to spread anthrax.''

Learning by doing

Call these threats dress rehearsals with real-life urgency.

``We've learned a tremendous amount from this,'' said LAPD Cmdr. Bruce E. Hagerty. That education has helped the agencies revise how they respond to the anthrax calls.

For example, the threat Wednesday that forced 200 workers to evacuate Time Warner Cable was quickly deemed to be a hoax. There was no evidence of contamination at the scene, the telephone threat was vague, and the caller gave no hint he had the expertise to pull off a biological attack, officials said.

``I'm really not very impressed with local cases,'' Mascola said. ``You just can't sort of throw anthrax in somewhere and say goodbye.''

Someone would need an extensive background in chemistry and access to a laboratory to ``aerosolize'' anthrax spores, making the bacteria airborne - their deadliest form.

But because the bacteria can cause infection throughout the body and death if untreated, police, fire and health officials responded to every threat as if it were the real thing. And every false alarm costs Los Angeles about $500,000 in equipment and personnel costs.

``It's a nuisance, but compared to what it could be . . . it's more of a nuisance to the folks standing around for five hours,'' Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis said.

Now more confident that they can handle a real emergency, police and firefighters say they will remain diligent in their response but say they plan to cut back resources unless obviously needed.

``The first responders are going to look at the possibility of a smaller initial response,'' Alba said. ``We're trying not to displace people. We're trying not to create anxiety where it doesn't need to be.''

With each threat since the Westwood scare, officials have eased the level of reaction: As a result of the Woodland Hills threat, those thought to be contaminated were given prescriptions for antibiotics, but in subsequent scares they were not.

And instead of immediately decontaminating people, they send evacuees home with a note telling them to scrub in a hot shower and place their clothes in a plastic bag. And they instruct the people to wait for results of anthrax tests - tests that have been negative in every case so far.

If anthrax had been found, however, there would have been enough time to administer antibiotics to the victims and stave off the disease.

``The public can be reassured that a lot of these issues are nonissues,'' Mascola said. ``We've got anthrax down.''

`Plays on hysteria'

Anthrax was the first disease for which a vaccine was developed, back in 1881 by Louis Pasteur.

The bacteria is most commonly found in the soil and spreads to cattle, sheep and other animals through their food and insect bites. Vaccination has all but wiped out the disease in the Western world.

But with a 90 percent fatality rate if left untreated, anthrax has terrified people for ages.

Saddam Hussein has claimed he has enough of the bacteria to wipe out millions.

``The word anthrax is just such a buzzword, and biological and chemical warfare is such an unknown quantity - that seems to be the power behind these threats,'' FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman said. ``It plays on people's hysteria. That alone is paralyzing.

``It's kind of like the flavor of the month. Twenty years ago, people didn't call in threats for anthrax. Heck, 10 years from now, five years from now, something else will come up.''

Others want relief now from the anthrax fad.

``I hope this hoax thing runs its course and dies down in a couple of weeks,'' said Phil Klein, vice president of operations for Time Warner Cable. ``If it's a hoax, I think we're as big a target as any other high-profile business.''

Preparing for the worst

Under the company's disaster plan, all its calls were answered at another facility during the crisis, and repair appointments went uninterrupted.

``We've always been concerned about somAething like this, and we were prepared for it,'' Klein said while standing quarantined with other employees Wednesday.

Preparation is the key to weathering such a threat, said Mark Leaf, spokesman for Pinkerton, the world's oldest security services company.

He said he's not aware of increased anxiety among Pinkerton clients since the anthrax scares, but he did say that companies should have emergency plans for any crisis, exotic or not.

``If the anthrax scare had somehow manifested true, it would probably result in a quarantine for somebody's building,'' Leaf said. So that company would need a contingency plan - just like after a building fire, for example - so the business could continue to operate.

The hoaxes have also disrupted the jobs of emergency officials.

``Basically, we'd like to go out and do our real work - prevention, real disease surveillance,'' said Mascola of the Health Services Department.

So despite what the FBI, Police Department, Fire Department, Health Department and other agencies have learned while chasing the phantom reports, officials want to punish the hoax callers. Simply phoning in an anthrax threat to a government building can net a sentence of up to life in federal prison.

``It takes a lot of time. It causes a lot of panic in the public,'' Mascola said. ``This is not a funny thing. If we catch these people, they are going to jail.''