Bandanas may be fine for robbing stagecoaches, but their protective function against anthrax remains to be seen. That didn't stop an FBI special agent and a public health official in South Carolina from suggesting that first responders could use bandanas and Playtex gloves for anthrax responses.

In the early days of the anthrax campaign that has killed five people to date since Sept. 11, the bandana protocol went out across South Carolina on a law enforcement education channel. The questionable advice surprised a number of fire chiefs, and several of them demanded an explanation during an Oct. 19 ICHIEFS teleconference about anthrax response.

Cotton Cole, chief of the Lancaster (S.C.) Fire Department, brought up the topic: “Your local field agent in Columbia … said we could use as little as a bandana over your mouth and any kind of Playtex glove you buy in a grocery store to [handle anthrax]. Is this true? Who's putting this information out?”

Steve Patrick, the senior hazmat officer for the FBI Hazardous Materials Response Unit, fielded the question. “In all my training and experience, I've never seen a bandana specified for respiratory protection, nor do I think it has been tested by NIOSH,” he said. “Any advice from the FBI about protective clothing should come out of the hazmat response unit. I want to emphasize, you want to talk to your WMD coordinator — there's one in every FBI field office — because there are a lot of FBI agents who are not trained on this program and will not be able to answer your questions.”

For the record,: the FBI'S HMRU uses a Level C ensemble, including a Tyvek coverall, rubber overboots, latex or nitral gloves, and a positive air-purifying respirator to operate in environments where anthrax has been confirmed. Hazmat expert John Eversole, who recently retired from the Chicago Fire Department, suggested that firefighters could also use turnout gear and SCBA for initial responses.

The controversy in South Carolina grew following the teleconference, however. Cole said he received angry phone calls from his local public health director — and from the FBI field office in Columbia. “This guy all but threatened to come lock me up,” Cole said. Cole praised the FBI's Steve Patrick for his handling of the situation. He also said ICHIEFS Executive Director Garry L. Briese made an important point about the heated exchanges: South Carolina seems to be the only state in the nation where the FBI and local public safety departments clashed on this issue.

Thankfully, cooperation seems to have replaced conflict as the order of the day. For more details about the ICHIEFS anthrax teleconference, visit <<a href="http://www.iafc.org" target="_blank">www.iafc.org>.