Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

Post office finds powder in letters

The letters, found in Tallahassee, were addressed to politicians throughout America.

TALLAHASSEE - A postal worker found white powder in about 20 letters addressed to politicians around the country early Tuesday, but state health officials said preliminary tests found the material was harmless.

Samples of the powder were sent to a state Health Department testing laboratory in Jacksonville, agency spokesman Rob Hayes said. He did not expect final results of the powder's composition for two or three days.

The letters, found at the city's main post office near downtown Tallahassee, were addressed to several members of Congress, Tallahassee Fire Department spokeswoman Pat Teague said.

Postal workers immediately secured the area after discovering the powder and called 911, Teague said. A hazardous materials team decontaminated the area, and no postal workers are thought to have been contaminated by the powder.

In late 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a photo editor for the Sun in Boca Raton died from anthrax. Officials believe he contracted it from powder in a letter sent to the Palm Beach County office. Another employee at the building was infected but survived.

Then, on Oct. 15, 2001, an anthrax-bearing letter was opened in the office of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Traces of the toxin were found in other areas of the Capitol, apparently the result of the exposure of other letters in the mail system, and thousands of workers were treated with antibiotics as a precaution.

Washington's Brentwood postal facility was closed because of contamination from the anthrax-laced letters sent to Capitol Hill. Two postal workers died after contracting the illness there, several others became ill and thousands took preventive medication.

The 1-million-square-foot Hart Senate Office Building where Daschle's office was located was declared safe three months later after it was decontaminated with chlorine dioxide, a toxic gas.