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Anthrax: Officials Delay Hart Building Reopening Officials yesterday delayed the reopening of the Hart Senate Office Building, originally scheduled for today, after a bag of hazardous-materials gear was found above a hallway ceiling (see GSN, Jan. 18). The bag, which contained a protective suit and gloves used in the anthrax decontamination effort, was found in the ceiling outside the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), according to the Washington Post. Preliminary tests conducted on the gear came back negative for anthrax, said a statement by the Senate sergeant-at-arms. The offices of nine other senators in the adjacent Dirksen Senate Office Building were closed as well because they share the ventilation system with the same area as that in which the gear was discovered, the Post reported. “We’re displaced from being displaced,” said Lindsay Ellenbogen, spokeswoman for Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the senators whose office was closed. “It is comforting they are taking these precautions.” It is unlikely the Hart building will reopen today, said U.S. Capitol Police spokesman Lt. Dan Nichols. Authorities said they are waiting for further test results, expected later today, before making any decisions on when to reopen the building. No criminal investigation is planned, Nichols said. “We can’t discount there is a logical explanation for what occurred” (Spencer Hsu, Washington Post, Jan. 18). Pentagon Screening for Pregnancy The U.S Defense Department may start screening for pregnant women in the military so they do not receive the anthrax vaccine, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Jan. 16). The preliminary findings of a recent study showed that the anthrax vaccine could cause birth defects. Officials, however, have concerns that the study’s data may be faulty and have ordered a review, said Lt. Mike Kafka of the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. The review could take months to complete, so the Pentagon has asked each military branch to develop a plan in two weeks to screen for pregnant women so they are not inoculated in the meantime (Associated Press/New York Times, Jan. 18).
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