Typical of the species is a firm called N-B-C-Warfare (the letters stand not for a television network, but for "Nuclear, Biological, Chemical"), which offers a Mail Room Protection Package for US$512. It includes a protective bodysuit, a gas mask, and a pink plastic container with matching lid that the company calls a "suspicious mail receptacle."
"The thing that is particularly troubling is that gas masks are an industrial and military product," said Jeffrey Fox, a senior editor with Consumer Reports, speaking not about any company's offerings in particular. "They are not regulated for a mass consumer market. They are designed to be used by people who are properly fitted or trained."
For sure, said Manny Peraza, the president of Polaris, who added that he developed the Bio-Shelter after noting such drawbacks. "When this attack took place, everybody was running around buying gas masks. But I'm a designer, so I am always thinking out of the box. I said, we as common-folk people have to come up with something to protect our families."
Peraza said his Flat Rock, Michigan, company had made 1,000 Bio-Shelters, and so far, sold 15. "Once the general public knows about this item, we'll have a hard time keeping it on the shelf," he predicted.
But it gets a cool reception from Martel, the national security expert. "Only in America," he said.
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