AP Wire Service

The possibility of Americans becoming targets of biological or chemical attacks has loomed larger in the public mind since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Area residents are buying gas masks for protection, cleaning out the shelves at some military surplus stores. In health circles, the possibility of an attack has been talked about--and planned for--for years.

Michigan's Department of Community Health hired its first full-time bioterrorism preparedness coordinator about two years ago after the state won a 3-year, $1.5-million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since then, the department has developed a response plan, worked to equip five laboratories to test for the presence of biological and chemical agents, and set up an emergency notification system for health providers.

``Are we prepared? Yes and no,'' Dr. David Johnson, chief medical executive of the state health department, told the Detroit Free Press for a Tuesday story.

``By that, I mean we have done a great deal, particularly in the last couple of years...but I say no, because the more we do, the more we clearly realize there is considerable additional work that has to be done,'' he said.

At Joe's Army Navy Surplus and Camping store in Royal Oak last week hung a handful of used, German-made gas masks. By Monday, the shelves were empty.

``Normally, we sold these as novelty items, like for Halloween for kids,'' said assistant manager Daedraeanna Catanese. ``Now moms are coming in here with their kids, buying the masks for the whole family.''

Some who study bioterrorism say the most likely scenario for an attack is by spraying an agent into the air.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Federal Aviation Administration halted crop-dusting flights Sunday and Monday after reports surfaced that a crop-dusting manual had been found in a possible terrorist hide-out.

The anthrax bacterium and smallpox virus are typically at the top of lists of substances terrorists might use because both can survive in the air long enough to be inhaled and cause infection, experts say. And there are other methods for release besides aircraft.

``If you have a sophisticated spraying device in a truck ... you could put anthrax in the back and drive through the road and spread it out in a particle size so small, no one would know it,'' Evans said.

The CDC has pushed state and local public health departments to prepare for bioterrorism in the last few years because the health system would likely be the first to know if something was amiss.

``Over the last two years, the state has set up an emergency phone number and there is more dialogue,'' said Dr. Gerald Blackburn of the department of infectious diseases at Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills. But, he said, these efforts ``are underfunded and we, the taxpayers, have been unwilling to pick it up.''