Last Updated

26 Jun 2003

Source: Associated Press, March 27, 2002

Postal Service preparing to begin anthrax cleanups

Work on facilities in D.C., N.J. will cost $35 million

WASHINGTON - Applying lessons learned in the cleanup of a Senate office building, the U.S. Postal Service is preparing to sanitize anthrax-contaminated facilities in Washington and New Jersey.

Cleanup crews have sealed the huge Brentwood facility in Washington to prevent any spores from escaping, and equipment is being installed to fill the building with germ-killing gas.

But with many details to be worked out, it could be a couple of months before the work gets done, Thomas G. Day, postal vice president for engineering, said yesterday.

"No one goes back in there to work until the facility has been cleaned and is proven to be clean," Day said.

The cleanup is expected to cost about $35 million - $22 million for work in Washington and $13 million in New Jersey.

Brentwood was closed Oct. 21 after being contaminated by anthrax sent in the mail. Two postal workers died of the disease (case 15 and case 16).

Now that the Brentwood building has been sealed, plans call for it to be filled with chlorine dioxide, for at least 12 hours with the temperature of at least 75 degrees and 75 percent humidity, Day said. Afterward, 3,000 test strips will be removed from the building and checked for live anthrax.

A few questions are still to be resolved, such as whether to treat the whole building at one time or do it in sections, Day said.

Once the work is complete in Washington, the equipment will be disassembled and taken to Trenton, N.J., to decontaminate the closed facility there.

Meanwhile, the family of one of the dead postal workers is filing a $50 million suit against his HMO, contending that doctors misdiagnosed anthrax in Thomas Morris Jr. (case 15) of Suitland, telling him he had a virus and sending him home. He died three days later, on Oct. 21.

The FBI and Postal Service are offering a $2.5 million reward for information leading to whoever mailed the contaminated letters.