Positive antharax test in US Fed building
About 20 pieces of mail have tested positive for traces of anthrax in an initial screening at the US Federal Reserve building in Washington.
The tainted mail was discovered as part of routine mail testing at the Federal Reserve’s main buildings. The test results were preliminary.
The mail did not contain powderlike substances or handwritten addresses. Such preliminary tests often are inaccurate and further tests are being conducted.
‘‘The affected mail was routine commercial and business mail and did not have any of the characteristics identified by the FBI as suspicious,’’ the Fed said in a statement.
The Fed did not have information on where the mail originated or where it had been processed. All mail addressed to the federal government is irradiated to kill any possible anthrax, but even the presence of dead spores could produce an initial positive reading.
Some of the mail was addressed to Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan as well as other officials, Fed spokesman David Skidmore said.
Skidmore said the 20 pieces of mail were ‘‘fairly recent’’ with postmarks of April or May.
Swabs that produced the positive readings will be sent to a laboratory for additional testing.
It is the second time the central bank has been exposed to the deadly bacteria that killed five people last year.
