What happened? After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, CEO Donald Podrebarac says he started brainstorming with the microbiologist who developed the water test kit about creating a test to detect biological or chemical agents. The result is the first known anthrax test kit aimed at consumers. The timing was impeccable–the test kit was created within days of the first reports that employees of Florida-based American Media had been infected with anthrax. While many scientists are questioning the test’s accuracy, consumers have inundated the company with requests. Vital Living Products is rushing to produce thousands of kits by the end of November that will be sold for about $25 through the 5,100-store ACE Hardware chain and other outlets.
Podrebarac won’t reveal the test’s methodology, but says the PurTest Anthrax Test now returns false positive or negative results just 5 percent of the time. Skeptics dispute that number and say that, while the kit may be a money-maker, it’s no panacea for a nation’s paranoia. “The last thing we need is 250 million people seeing the test results and panicking,” says Calvin Chue, a scientist at the Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies at Johns Hopkins. “This is best left to the professionals.”
Podrebarac says he hopes that consumers don’t have to use his test. But he wants to give them the option. NEWSWEEK’s Jennifer Barrett spoke with Podrebarac:
Donald Podrebarac: We already made a whole line of home water-testing products. On Sept. 11, the horrific tragedies that struck our country caused me to think about what that might mean to our water supply. I thought we should develop a product to detect biological threats in water. I talked to our microbiologist, and we determined that anthrax was the most common and most readily available agent; then we realized that this was a perfect adaptation of the bacteria test we’re already marketing.
We started working on the test right after the [Sept. 11] attacks. As sad as this is to say, we guessed right by picking the type of bioterrorism element that was the most readily available and also the most common. We were already a long ways down the road when those cases surfaced in Florida. Initially, the conversation with my microbiologist was that we needed to develop a test for chemical warfare in water. But when we started searching for information on chemical and biological terrorism and all the different elements, everything we saw was anthrax, anthrax, anthrax. Still, I’ve been shocked by the number of cases. If I had my choice, I would take a great big eraser and erase everything that has happened. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought something would happen that would precipitate the need for this product.
You can get some false positives, even with our tests–it happens about 5 percent of the time … Hopefully, by the time we start production in a couple weeks, the number will be even lower. We are telling people that if you get a positive, it is not always absolutely definitive. We always recommend you call your doctor, your local authorities and local police.
Well, I hope not. I think some people will feel better having it. Some people will think it’s stupid. The purpose of this product is to give Americans the tools to, one, have a little more peace of mind, and, two, relieve some of the pressure on our officials trying to figure all this out and going after all these calls right now. But the best thing would be for this to serve as a deterrent to terrorism. If they [terrorists] realize that Americans have a product to detect anthrax, why would they continue to spread it?
Our phones have just been inundated with calls from all over the country, and all over the world now. We’re a small company. But we’ll be adding more employees in a hurry. When we go into production, we’re going to start at around 10,000 kits a day, and ramp it up from there. We’ve also gotten some alarming calls that have some employees nervous about the motivation behind the call. We got one call that I ended up taking where the first question they asked was “Where is your production facility located and what are your hours of operation?” I was a little suspicious and when I asked who it was, they hung up. I wonder if it’s an issue of us just being paranoid now or have we all had to become a little more cautious and vigilant. Sept. 11 changed the way all of us look at the world.
I am absolutely concerned. I am meeting with some researchers to discuss tests for other elements once we get this [anthrax kit] into full production. We may not be able to stop some of these terrorists, but if they have to stop and rethink their plans, that will give the intelligence community some more time to find them. Some of these threats cause me some real concern, you can’t even get the elements to diagnose it. Those are the kinds of things that could have catastrophic effects on people, like smallpox.
