Post offices closed in anthrax scare
The US Postal Service closed 11 Washington-area post offices today while authorities checked to see if anthrax was detected at a Navy office handling mail.
Authorities decided to close the facilities and test them for any biohazard contamination today, Postal Service spokesman Azeezaly Jaffer said.
There was no indication any of 1,200 to 1,500 postal workers involved were exposed to anthrax.
Equipment that routinely monitors the air at the Naval Automated Processing Facility in the District of Columbia indicated the presence of “small amounts of biological pathogens, possibly anthrax,” said Rachael Sunbarger, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman.
After the initial test, eight air samples were sent to Fort Detrick, Maryland, for testing, according to Lieutenant Commander Edward Zeigler, spokesman for the Naval District of Washington.
One sample tested positive for anthrax and seven tested negative, he said.
As a result, more testing was being done, he said.
Anthrax infections through inhalation or skin contact could be fatal. Two years ago, anthrax-laced letters sent to federal and media offices killed five people and 17 others nationwide, but no arrests have been made.
Most of the mail moving through the Navy mail station was processed by the Postal Service’s V Street facility, which handles government mail, and it was closed, Jaffer said.
Later, however, it was determined that a contractor that transported the mail to the Navy site had also collected mail from 10 other facilities in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. All were closed.
Chun said the matter was being further investigated by the FBI, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, postal inspectors and others.
