Last Updated

22 Jun 2003

Source: Washington Post, February 2, 2002.

Trace of Anthrax Found at FCC Mail Site

Amount Discovered at Md. Facility Too Small to Sicken Workers, Officials Say

By Jamie Stockwell, Washington Post Staff Writer

Tests conducted at a Capitol Heights postal facility this week found a trace amount of anthrax, nearly four months after deadly spores were detected in a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle and weeks after panic over the bacterium had eased.

The anthrax, discovered Thursday at an off-site Federal Communications Commission mail-processing center in Prince George's County, was not nearly enough to cause infection, an FCC spokesman said.

David Fiske said the eight employees assigned to the postal facility were offered antibiotics as a precaution, but he was unsure whether any had opted to take medication. He said he had not heard of anyone falling ill.

"But it's still a trace, so we have taken every precaution," Fiske said.

The facility was tested Tuesday at the FCC's request, according to a statement posted on the agency's Web site. One of 10 samples tested positive for an "amount of contamination too small to deliver an infectious dose."

Final test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be available Monday. Fiske said FCC officials have not learned where the anthrax spores originated.

The FCC is following precautions similar to those taken by the federal Office of Personnel Management after a single anthrax spore was detected in its mailroom Dec. 11, Fiske said. Officials have halted all mail deliveries to the Capitol Heights facility until at least Monday. That facility has been processing and screening mail sent to the FCC's Capitol Hill headquarters since late October. Letters are irradiated first.

FedEx and United Parcel Service packages will be accepted as usual, Fiske said.

The FCC's filing window at 236 Massachusetts Ave. NE, for hand-delivered papers, is unaffected, Fiske said.

He said the Capitol Heights facility would be wiped down to eliminate any other possible traces of anthrax, and the agency will continue to periodically test the facility.

Fiske said Tuesday's test was the first conducted there despite the anthrax scare that began in October, because no mail had previously been sorted there. The FCC has rented the space at 9300 E. Hampton Dr. for years to store records. After the initial anthrax scare, the commission hired contractors from technology company Vistronix Inc. to sort and process all of its mail there.

A spokesman for the McLean-based firm said he was unsure whether the eight employees assigned to the Capitol Heights facility were taking antibiotics.

In mid-October, a photography editor at a Florida-based tabloid died after inhaling anthrax, fueling fears across the country that the next wave of terrorism would be distributed in batches of the bacterium. Days later -- after spores were detected in a letter sent to the office of Daschle (D-S.D.) in the Hart Senate Office Building and after the Brentwood postal facility that processed the letter was closed -- trace amounts were detected at other area post offices.

A total of five people died before the bioterrorism scare eased, and 13 more suffered from nonfatal cases of inhalational and cutaneous anthrax.

Last week, senators and their staff members returned to the Hart building, which had been closed for 96 days for decontamination. Until this week, anthrax had not been detected in the Washington region since early December.