Trace Anthrax Found at Conn. Post Office

Trace Anthrax Found at Conn. Post Office

NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Dec. 3, 2001

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Authorities reassured the public Monday there was no need to be concerned over the discovery of trace amounts of anthrax on some mail sorting equipment at a postal facility in Wallingford, Conn.

It was the Southern Connecticut Processing and Distribution Center in Wallingford that handled mail for 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren of Oxford, who died Nov. 21 from inhalation anthrax, and for a home in nearby Seymour where a letter was also found with a trace of anthrax.

"This is a very small amount of anthrax," said Connecticut public health commissioner Dr. Joxel Garcia, according to CNN. "The people of Connecticut should not be concerned about opening their mail."

The U.S. Postal Service said in a statement Sunday the equipment where the trace anthrax was found has been isolated for cleaning, but the Wallingford facility has not been shut down.

Nearly 400 samples have been taken from the Wallingford Post Office, the most recent on Nov. 28, when trace amounts turned up on five samples.

"This finding is not a complete surprise," Jon Steele, vice president of the U.S. Postal Service's Northeast operations, told CNN. "It's important for people to know that the mails are safe and they should not be alarmed."

Authorities are looking at the possibility Lundgren might have come in contact with a letter that had been cross-contaminated with anthrax-laden mail sent to politicians in Washington. So far, however, no traces of anthrax have been found in the woman's home.

Five people have died from inhalation anthrax infection since the attacks began in early October.

Federal health officials have suggested the elderly, whose immune systems are not as able to fend off infection because of age, may be able to contract inhalation infection through cross contamination.

There is no scientific data establishing a minimum threshold for the number of anthrax spores required to cause either inhalation or cutaenous -- the less serious skin form -- of anthrax. Experts, however, believe it would require far more spores for an inhalation infection than for cutaneous.

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