Abstract: A portable detection system (10) for hazardous materials including explosives and infectious or hazardous biological agents readily adapted to conventional mail collection boxes (12), rural mailboxes (100), mailbags (40), and the like. The system includes a fan (14) and a sensor (16). The fan (14) provides sufficient airflow to circulate the air within a mailbox such that the internal air after coming in contact with the contents is directed the sensor for analysis. The air quality can be determined visually (137), audibly (138), or electronically (139). Consequently once such detection is made and the air is verified as being safe, the contents can be removed safely. If it is determined that the air contains some type of hazardous material, further steps can be taken to specifically locate the source of such hazardous material. An alternative embodiment includes a filter (15) to improve fan efficiency.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for reliably detecting bio-warfare agents in the mail stream that may be released from posted items. The agents are detected as the mail pieces are being processed using typical postal automation machines equipped with image scanning capabilities. The detection problem is solved combining two technologies. The first technology is an aerosol trigger that can be based on a variety of different existing approaches. One such approach detects particulates of a specific size range and examines the spectral characteristics of the particles when illuminated with an ultra violet (UV) or other light source. Other approaches may include: mass spectrometry, ion mobility, IR spectrometry and the like. The second technology involves scanning and analyzing images of suspect mail pieces and correlating aerosol trigger events with mail piece image risk factors.