Last Updated

31 Dec 2002

Source: Washington Post, February 9, 2002.

Workers Handling Government Mail Report Symptoms

Complaints Raise Irradiation Concerns

By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writer

At least 87 postal workers handling irradiated government mail in Gaithersburg have reported nausea or eye or breathing problems, union leaders said, as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Postal Service continue to investigate the safety of treated mail.

The postal union complaints, coming two days after doctors on Capitol Hill reported that 73 Senate staff members were suffering similar symptoms, reflect the lingering worries over possible side effects caused by the novel treatment used to make mail safe.

Government investigators said that the symptoms are minor and that new precautions have eliminated observable levels of harmful gases probably caused by irradiating the mail.

Nevertheless, medical experts have urged workers to carefully track side effects as part of an ongoing review.

"These are unknowns, so I don't think we can dismiss them as minimal. They have to be explored. They have to put the best science to use and get answers," said Sally Davidow, spokeswoman for the American Postal Workers Union. "If irradiation is causing [symptoms] or something else is causing it, they have to get to the bottom of it and fix it."

All mail bound for federal offices in the District since November has been sent to plants in Lima, Ohio, and Bridgeport, N.J., where it is sanitized with radiation. The mail is then sorted at a postal station on V Street NE and dispatched to area postal facilities, among them the Suburban Processing and Distribution Facility in Gaithersburg.

Postal officials chose irradiation to safeguard against anthrax contamination, after being assured by government scientists that irradiation is "perfectly safe," spokeswoman Deborah Yackley said.

But workers at both facilities have reported headaches and other symptoms since the shipments began. The Postal Service determined in December that unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide, which is produced when plastic is exposed to radiation, were being released when employees at V Street unpacked cardboard boxes and plastic bags containing irradiated mail.

In response, engineers lowered radiation dosages by about 40 percent after concluding that that was sufficient to kill anthrax spores and other biological contaminants.

"Since we've been doing that, we've had literally no complaints from employees at V Street," Yackley said. "And complaints at Suburban . . . were way down."

Tammy Thompson, president of the Montgomery County local of the postal workers union, disagreed. "It has not stopped. Employees are still getting sick on a daily basis" from the mail, she said.

Thompson said 87 of about 750 workers at the Gaithersburg facility have reported problems. A few have missed several days of work or are filing workers' compensation claims.

"The employees are experiencing nosebleeds, runny noses, runny eyes, extreme headaches, nausea," Thompson said. "Some are actually throwing up, and we have been going through this since December."

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is studying the presence at the V Street Station of organic compounds that can cause mild irritation, and contractor URS Corp. is conducting a similar assessment at the Gaithersburg plant, spokesmen for the Postal Service and the CDC agency said.

Several workers in the Office of Personnel Management also reported symptoms in mid-January, but NIOSH reported no raised levels of harmful gases Feb. 1.

"We didn't have a lot of information at hand to weigh in on the decision, whether or not to irradiate mail," said Llelwyn Grant, a CDC spokesman. "Well, we're beginning to look at it now."