Two Washington postal workers may have died as a result of inhaled anthrax and two other Washington postal workers have tested positive for the disease (see GSN, Oct. 22), officials said yesterday.

The four postal workers were all employed at the Brentwood Road mail-processing facility in Washington.  The two workers who died had gone to area hospitals only hours before their deaths.  Joseph Curseen died six hours after arriving at Southern Maryland Hospital Center with flulike symptoms.  Thomas Morris Jr. arrived at Greater Southeast Hospital in Washington with "potential exposure to anthrax," according to the Washington Post, and died 15 hours later.  If confirmed, the deaths of Curseen and Morris would bring the total number of U.S. anthrax deaths to three. 

The deaths of the postal workers are "a very solemn and tragic reminder that the uniform of public service and the possibility of dying in the line of duty is nowhere more evident than at Brentwood," said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.   

Two other Brentwood employees have tested positive for inhaled anthrax and seven others were under observation.  Washington health officials have added 2,000 postal workers at the city's 36 post offices, who might have come into contact with anthrax spread through mail from Brentwood, to the 3,000 Brentwood employees, visiting contractors and visitors who are receiving testing and antibiotics.  New tests of the closed Brentwood facility have found anthrax spores in 14 of 29 locations. 

Because of the wide spread of exposure at Brentwood and the discovery over the weekend of anthrax at a House of Representatives' office building, investigators assume that another contaminated letter, besides the one sent last week to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (see GSN, Oct. 16) that passed through the Brentwood facility, was involved.  "It's difficult to believe that only one letter could be responsible for all this," said an official. 

U.S. Postal Service officials said the believed the mail was safe, but did not offer explanations as to why any mail or packages that passed through the Brentwood facility would not be exposed to anthrax spores in the same way as the workers there were, according to the Post.   "Overall, since Sept. 11, there have been well over 20 billion pieces of mail processed and delivered" nationwide, said Postal Service spokesman Grey Fey, and only a few letters had been tainted with anthrax.  "Last year, according to health authorities, 21,000 people died of the flu.  One might argue you have a much greater chance of dying of the flu than getting this" (Twomey/Goldstein, Washington Post, Oct. 23).     

All mail sent to addresses in Washington go through the Brentwood facility.  The facility was not closed until Sunday because of advice from the Centers of Diseases Control that workers could not be contaminated with anthrax from a sealed envelope, postal officials said.  CDC officials said they recommended what they thought was appropriate action, given the information they had at the time. 

Thirteen potential cases of anthrax, including the four Brentwood workers, are under investigation in Washington, said Ivan Walks, Washington's chief medical officer.  Not all of the people under investigation worked at Brentwood, Walks said (Rosenbaum/Stolberg, New York Times, Oct. 23).

Postal Workers Reaction

Postal workers were angry that the U.S. Congress quickly reacted to the presence of anthrax in the Daschle letter, while there was a delayed response at the Brentwood facility, according to the New York Times.  “They’ve been playing this down for us, telling us work was safe,” said Cynthia Hudson, a Brentwood employee.  “And we’re asking, ‘How do we know that?’ The Senate’s mail comes through here.”

The Postal Service followed CDC advice that said testing at Brentwood was unnecessary “until there was an evidence chain that there was anthrax present in the facility,” said Senior Vice-President Deborah Willhite.  It was not until Sunday, when the first of the two infected employees was identified, that officials had reason to believe the Brentwood facility was contaminated, Willhite said. 

CDC officials said they had been making the best decisions they could with the information they had.  “This really is a new phenomenon,” said Mitch Cohen, a CDC senior official.  “At first we had no evidence that any of the mail handlers were at risk.”  A second CDC official said: “As of two or three weeks ago we have never had an incident like this.  This is very much a work in progress” (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, Oct. 23).   

The two deaths at Brentwood may have been avoided if the Postal Service had listened to workers’ requests for earlier testing and antibiotics, said Washington postal worker union officials.  “I think this whole thing could have been avoided,” said Patricia Johnson, president of the Washington chapter of the American Postal Workers Union.  “If I was a family member, I’d sue the Postal Service … When it comes to postal employees, we are the last in any government agency that they care about” (Justin Blum, Washington Post, Oct. 23).    

Machines May Be to Blame

Anthrax spores might have contaminated the Brentwood facility when a tainted letter went through a mail sorting machine, said experts yesterday.  It is possible that the infected workers were exposed to anthrax from the Daschle letter if a tear or gap in the seal allowed finely ground spores to escape into the air, where they could become suspended.  The spores might have come from another as-yet identified letter, according to experts.  “Once there was an opening in that letter of any kind, then the fact that workers … became infected is not a surprise,” said Richard Spertzel, former head of biological weapons inspection for U.N. Special Commission on Iraq.

Letters at Brentwood are sorted by machine and then blowers are used to clean the equipment of dust and debris.  The blowers could have suspended finely ground anthrax spores in the air, said Philip Brachman, a professor of public health at Emory University.  “If the spores were lying on the machine, it would take something like that,” Brachman said.  “Once it’s up, if it’s light enough, it’s going to float.”  Tests on monkeys have shown that a person must inhale about 8,000 to 10,000 anthrax spores to become infected.  That amount would weigh only eight thousandths of a millionth of a gram and would not be visible to the naked eye, said Southern Research Institute Vice President David Franz. 

Anthrax spores cannot pass through intact paper.  Many envelopes, however, if not sealed with tape contain gaps on the ends of the flap where a powder could come out, Franz said.  “If it’s in an envelope, a lot of bending and fast movement of the envelope could puff a little bit out of those openings, I’m guessing,” Franz said (Susan Okie, Washington Post, Oct. 23).  “On most regular mail, either licked with the tongue or whatever, the sealing is never complete,” said Eli Argon, a consultant to the Postal Service.  “Just about every piece of equipment in the post office, by virtue of the fact that it is automated and mechanical, agitates the piece of mail,” said Robert Griffith, founder of BDR Technical Services, which supplies sorting devices (Andrew Revkin, New York Times, Oct. 23).

Keeping the U.S. Government Running

In the wake of recent anthrax occurrences in Washington, the U.S. government is looking at emergency measures to keep functioning if Congress cannot meet, the Bush administration said yesterday.  The Office of Management and Budget is discussing with the House and Senate appropriations committees an automatic funding mechanism, proposed by the White House, to maintain government operations for 30 days, OMB spokeswoman Amy Call said.  “If congressional leaders decide they can’t meet, in consultation with the president, [the measure] would make sure the government could function in all scenarios,” Call said.

Details about the proposal had yet to be fully worked out, according to Call.  The proposal would likely allow the president, upon the required notification by congressional leaders, simply to direct government agencies to continue operating at current funding levels.  Call called it a “good government” proposal and the Bush administration officials said they were considering including the measure in this year’s appropriations bills.

House leaders set up alternative office space for each member at a federal building in downtown Washington today.  Senators will work out of temporary offices in a building near Union Station in Washington, according to the Washington Times.  Congressional leaders decided last night against reopening House and Senate office buildings today as planned because environmental tests have yet to be completed.  “Science takes time, said Capitol Police spokesman Lt. Dan Nichols.  “We’re still analyzing the data” (Dave Boyer, Washington Times, Oct. 23). 

New York

Traces of anthrax have been found in the offices of CBS News anchor Dan Rather (see GSN, Oct. 19), CBS officials said.  The levels found were so small that Rather and his aides are continuing to use their offices.  Rather has not been tested for anthrax and he is not on antibiotics, his spokeswoman said.  Rather’s offices are scheduled to be cleaned this week to remove any anthrax remains. 

“It is, of course, rather disconcerting,” said Kim Akhtar, a Rather aide and spokeswoman.  “It is important to keep a level head as panic and fear often cloud a more objective decision” (Eric Lipton, New York Times, Oct. 23).  

Workers at mail-sorting centers in New York are also concerned about conditions for postal employees.  “There’s dust everywhere.  You can’t tell dust or anthrax,” said Jack Rutigliano, a maintenance shop steward at a Manhattan facility.  “We have letters that shred completely, and there’s no test to tell you what you’re breathing.”  Addys Lamb, a mail sorter at the facility that processed the tainted letters sent to NBC and CBS News and the New York Post said: “I see all these people lining up to be tested, but the fact is that we’re in danger.  No one says anything to us.”

A Postal Service spokeswoman said new precautions are being implemented.  “In New York, we have installed new vacuums,” that limit machine exhaust, said Postal Service spokeswoman Pat McGovern.  “Mail is dusty by nature, but the machines are now greased and vacuumed carefully every day” (Powell/Russakoff, Washington Post, Oct. 23).

Radiation May Be the Answer

Officials are looking at using irradiation or other sterilization technology to clean mail of pathogens, according to the Washington Post.  Irradiation may be the most viable solution to ill microbes, such as anthrax, in mail before it reaches people, experts said.  “Irradiation is used for food to reduce pathogens and extend shelf life, and there is thinking now that irradiation does such a nice job … that maybe it can be applicable to mail also, said National Food Processors Association Vice President Jeffrey Barach.  “In the case of mail, if there was some powdered bacterial spores in there, it would have the effect of basically killing them or sanitizing them,” Barach said.

“With food, you have the concern about taste and quality after the radiation effects,” Barach said.  “So, generally, fairly low doses of radiation are used on food products.  With mail, of course, nobody taste mail.  You could give it fairly healthy dosages.  It doesn’t do anything to the mail.  It certainly doesn’t make the product radioactive or leave any residue.  So the mail opener or handler would have no problems in handling the mail after that.”

The CDC has listed three main methods of irradiation: radiation can be given off by a radioactive substance such as Cobalt 60; electron beams, which are a nonradioactive but highly accelerated stream of electrons sprayed from an electron “gun; and a more potent version of X-ray radiation.  The electron gun and X-ray technologies could be installed in a postal facility, “where mail could be passed along a conveyor belt and the treatment given in that regard,” said Barach (Michael Ruane, Washington Post, Oct. 23).

Is Iraq Another Victim?

Iraqi diplomats in New York and Washington asked U.S. authorities to test two letters that contained a suspicious whiter powder, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.  The Iraqi government is likely the victim of a hoax, said U.S. diplomats, but law enforcement authorities have not said what made up the powders.  “We did receive a package that contained some white powder; it was handed over to the New York police, said an Iraqi official.  “They haven’t really informed us whether they have found anything.  They told us if it contains something serious, they would be on top of it.”  An official response from the New York Police Department on the results of their tests are expected today, said a U.S. official (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Oct. 23).

There is no concrete link between Iraq and the U.S. anthrax occurrences, the U.S. State Department said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 19).  “We don’t put anything past (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein, but I don’t believe that there’s any clear linkage at this point,” said State Department Spokesman Philip Reeker.  “We have no illusions about Saddam Hussein, and his record of threats and assaults about his own people, as well as neighboring countries, is very well known, as are his attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction,” Reeker said (Reuters/New York Times, Oct. 22). 

Iraqi officials denied any link and said the United States was fabricating the anthrax occurrences as a pretext to broaden its antiterrorism campaign to include more nations, according to Reuters.  “The aim is to create suspicion around countries listed by the United States [as sponsors of terrorism] in order to commit aggression against them,” said al-Thawra, the newspaper of Iraq’s ruling Baath party.  “Such plots and games by successive American administrations are not new to us as they have planned several scenarios in order to achieve their dream of controlling the whole word,” al-Thawra said.

Iraq also said that U.N. weapons inspectors would not be allowed to return.  “Iraq’s position is clear that it will not accept the return of [U.N.] weapon inspection teams,” said Huda Saleh Mehdi Amasah, a senior Baath party official.  U.S. President George W. Bush has said he is watching Iraq “very carefully” and that Hussein should allow international inspectors to return to Iraq (Hassan Hafidh, Reuters/Yahoo.com, Oct. 23).   

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