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ANDREW BROWN, CNN Correspondent: Historians believe the origins of biological warfare are hundreds of years old. The Romans would toss rotting animals at their enemies, using giant catapults.
In the 1500’s, smallpox swept through the Aztec civilization after the disease was imported by Spanish colonizers. In the 1700’s, European settlers, in North America, allegedly handed out smallpox tainted blankets to Indian tribes to wipe them out. Japan is accused of releasing bombs filled with Bubonic Plague in China during World War II.
Over the course of the 20th century, chemical attacks have also become a reality. In 1995, a Japanese sect used a nerve gas called sarin on the Tokyo Subway. The operation claimed 12 lives and injured 5,000.
So what can governments do to reassure the public? History tells us toxic agents are often deadly and easily spread. And the anthrax cases in the United States show how easy it is to target victims in an open society.
The Japanese Post Office has stepped up screening of packages and issued staff with face masks. Officials are hoping to stop anthrax spores being sent by mail, something which, of course, has already happened. But analysts say it’s not practical to screen all items or shut down post offices.
MICHAEL DEGOLYER, Hong Kong Baptist Univ.: Your economy cannot function without delivery of the mail, all right? And it’s an international mail system too. So you can’t communicate unless you are open, effectively, for attack.

BROWN: Andrew Brown, CNN, Hong Kong.

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