N.J. Mail Workers Get Anthrax Test
By SHEILA HOTCHKIN
Associated Press Writer
TRENTON, N.J. - A mail carrier and a post office maintenance worker at the city's main post office are being tested for anthrax after reporting possible symptoms of the disease, postal officials said Monday.
The disclosure came as federal investigators searched for the source of two letters containing anthrax that were postmarked in Trenton on Sept. 18. One was sent to NBC headquarters in New York, infecting an employee with the skin form of anthrax, and the other to the Senate majority leader's office in Washington.
Postal Inspector Tony Esposito said the female mail carrier had flu-like symptoms and the other employee, a man, had symptoms resembling poison ivy.
The woman's physician told investigators she had been ill for weeks. The first medication she was given had no effect, but her symptoms cleared up after she was given Cipro, an antibiotic used to treat anthrax, Esposito said.
The anthrax tests were "really done as a precautionary measure," he said. "I want to stress there's no evidence of any risk at all."
Postal officials said there was no evidence of anthrax in the post office located just outside Trenton in Hamilton Township. Inspectors met with 250 employees to give guidelines on how to spot suspicious packages.
Knowing that two letters carrying anthrax came through Trenton is only the first step in an investigation one FBI agent compared to finding a needle in a haystack: Esposito said 246,000 pieces of mail from 46 mail facilities were processed at the Trenton Main Post Office on Sept. 18.
State police said a secretary at the New Jersey Statehouse found a letter to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw inside a Federal Express package addressed to an official in the governor's office. The secretary didn't open the letter and dropped it in the mail Sept. 18.
FBI agents determined the letter was not the one that infected Brokaw's assistant, but are investigating "who initially sent the FedEx package," state police spokesman John Hagerty said. He declined to comment on the contents of the letter.
Residents are flooding New Jersey police departments with phone calls about suspicious packages, letters and substances.
An employee from the New Jersey Law Journal was tested for anthrax Monday after finding a strange, sandy substance inside a company's annual report, publisher Robert Steinbaum said.
Steinbaum said he did not know who mailed the document. The journal's Newark office was evacuated for about an hour Monday while a hazardous materials crew removed the report.
In Atlantic City, the Sands Hotel & Casino was closed for an hour Sunday after a prescription bottle containing a powder was found on a restaurant table. Police, firefighters, a hazardous materials crew and the FBI responded and detained more than 100 people.
The powder turned out to be Old Bay seasoning brought in by a diner to use on food, authorities said.
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