WASHINGTON _ Fear of bioterrorism by mail spread Tuesday as traces of anthrax were found at a mail-sorting site for the White House, three more postal
workers were hospitalized under suspicion that they have the disease and officials confirmed that two dead postal workers were indeed killed by the bacteria.
Traces of anthrax spores were discovered at the White House mail-sorting station during a regular check of a letter-opening machine. The site was at Bolling
Air Force Base in Washington, several miles from the White House, government officials said. The letter or letters carrying the anthrax has not been found.
Tests found no sign of anthrax spores inside the White House.
“We’re making sure the West Wing and the White House is safe,” President Bush said from the White House. “I’m confident when I come to work tomorrow that
I’ll be safe.” He declined to say whether he had been tested or whether he was taking antibiotics as a precaution. “I don’t have anthrax.”
Bush urged Americans to remain calm and focused in the face of this bioterrorism.
“This country is too strong to let terrorists affect the lives of our citizens,” Bush said. “I understand that people are concerned, and they should be, but they
need to know their government is doing everything we possible can to protect the lives of our citizens.”
The remote White House mail-processing site was closed for additional tests and decontamination, and all mail deliveries from it halted. White House
spokesman Ari Fleisher implied that technology, perhaps radiation or ultraviolet treatment, was being used to kill any bacteria in letters to the executive mansion.
“There have been a series of security precautions that have been put in place here at the White House which give us high confidence that there is not an issue
here at the White House itself,” Fleischer said.
None of the eight exposed mail handlers at the White House processing site has reported any symptoms common to anthrax exposure, and their test results
are not yet in. Still, the Secret Service said, all those employees will be offered antibiotic treatment as a precaution.
The Secret Service believes that the anthrax at the White House mail site was of “low level” quality because tests showed the range of 20 to 500 spores per
“whatever the unit of measurement is,” said Jim Mackin, spokesman for the agency. The standard unit of measurement is a micron, one-millionth of a meter.
Depending on the strain of anthrax, 4000 to 5000 spores per micron are needed to make someone ill; lethal concentration ranges from 8,000 to 10,000
spores.
“This was on the low end,” Mackin said.
Since no letter or package was found with traces of anthrax, “there could be a piece of correspondence that is still out there” with the spores but the Secret
Service will not be able to investigate the facility until “it is safe to do so,” Mackin said.
One poisonous connection linked the White House processing site to the anthrax hot spots reported earlier in Washington, D.C. _ all mail sent to the White
House site was first processed at the Brentwood post station, itself the linchpin in a growing chain of anthrax-related illness and death.
The Brentwood station also handled an anthrax-tainted letter sent to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. that exposed some 28 Capitol
Hill workers to the bacteria.
Anthrax spores have been discovered in 14 different parts of the Brentwood site, officials revealed Tuesday. They confirmed that two postal workers there
who died Sunday and Monday were killed by anthrax. The dead were identified as Thomas L Morris Jr. and Joseph P. Curseen.
Last month, a photo editor at a tabloid newspaper in Florida died of inhalation anthrax.
Meanwhile, two other postal workers at Brentwood have been diagnosed as being infected with the inhaled form of the disease and remained hospitalized in
serious condition Tuesday.
A third mail handler, this one in New Jersey, was suffering from what appeared to be inhaled anthrax and was hospitalized in serious condition, according to
state health commissioner George DiFerdinando. The afflicted woman, whose name was not released, worked at a post office that handled at least three
anthrax-laced letters to New York and Washington.
Federal health officials Tuesday defended their initial failure to close the Brentwood station or to order testing of the roughly 2,000 men and women who work
there. Testing started Tuesday at 36 other Washington-area post offices that handle mail processed at the Brentwood site.
Health officials said they had not thought that anthrax spores could leak out of sealed envelopes.
“There was no reason to think this was a possibility,” said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We have never had cases of anthrax attacks in this manner before. It is a new challenge that we are all facing as a country,” added Health and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
Appearing before Congress, Thompson vowed quicker action in the future to protect people who might be exposed and said the government is rapidly building
up its defenses against other possible bioterrorism attacks.
“When a case of anthrax does emerge, we will immediately move in at any and all postal facilities that might have handled that piece of mail,” Thompson said.
“If we even remotely suspect that an anthrax-tainted letter may have passed through a facility, we’re going to get there, test the facility and make the
appropriate treatment available to those who may have been exposed.”
Thompson noted that President Bush has requested $1.5 billion to improve defenses against bioterrorism, including $509 million to accelerate production of
300 million doses of vaccine against smallpox.
The government also plans to create four new “push packs” of emergency medical supplies that can be rushed to any part of the country within 12 hours. The
government already has eight such packs, each containing 50 tons of supplies such as antibiotics, needles and oxygen masks.
It also intends to stockpile enough drugs over the next year to treat 10 million persons for inhalation anthrax, Thompson said. That would be in addition to
drugs now available in the emergency push packs to treat 2 million cases.
The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors on Monday agreed to spend up to $200 million to buy new equipment to sanitize mail. Among possibilities are
machines that use radiation or ultraviolet rays to kill bacteria in food. The service also plans to require many mail handlers to wear facial masks to screen out
airborne bacteria.
As the investigation into the anthrax letters continued, officials said they still could not determine whether they were connected to the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
“We are not able to rule out an association with the terrorist acts of Sept. 11,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said. “But neither are we able to draw a
conclusive link at this time in that respect.”
Congress went back to work Tuesday _ but not necessarily back to the office.
Three Senate office buildings remained closed as officials awaited results of tests for anthrax. Senators used private “hideaway” offices in the Capitol but had
little room for aides.
All five House office buildings also remained closed. House leaders said they would remain off limits until fully screened for traces of anthrax.
House members were given temporary space in a nearby building housing the Congress’s General Accounting Office. In tight quarters, each member was only
allowed to bring three aides _ down from the a
verage staff of 10.
In other developments Tuesday:
_In Dallas, an apparent hoax led to federal charges Tuesday as officials charged a man with threatening to send anthrax to a local law firm. The local U.S.
attorney’s office said Ronnie Lamar Williams, 26, of Dallas, left a telephone message at the firm on Oct. 16 saying he planned to send a package containing
anthrax. No package was received.
Williams was charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Williams was ordered
held without bond until a hearing on Thursday.
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(Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondents Lenny Savino, James Kuhnhenn, Tony Pugh, Sumana Chatterjee, Cassio Furtado and Kevin Murphy contributed to
this report.)
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