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Precautions urged when handling mail
Compiled from Times wires ATLANTA -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reissued guidelines Thursday for people concerned they may contract anthrax from contaminated mail, though the agency stressed the risk is "very low." The mail-handling advice came as the CDC disclosed that 85-million pieces of mail went through New Jersey and Washington postal facilities that handled anthrax-filled letters before the centers were closed. "Would an old envelope that might have been contaminated or cross-contaminated have a spore or two on it? Could it still? Yes," CDC director Jeffrey Koplan said. "But there really isn't a basis for undue alarm and fear around this." Infection from cross-contamination is unlikely, Koplan said, because lingering spores that have survived this long on envelopes are probably larger, less dangerous ones. Still, he said, some people may want to handle mail carefully. The CDC suggested that people concerned about exposure keep mail away from their faces when they open it, avoid blowing or sniffing the contents, avoid tearing or shredding the mail before throwing it away, and frequently wash their hands. Simply not opening mail that appears suspicious is also an option, as is throwing away the envelopes, the CDC said. "If there are some spores on the outside of an envelope, the more vigorously you shake it or bang it up, they're more likely to come off," Koplan said. "It's probably better not to slap it around, wave it in the air or tear it too aggressively." The guidelines are similar to advice health officials have been giving since soon after the anthrax-by-mail scare began in October. Letters to Leahy, Daschle are 'virtually identical'The anthrax-laced envelope sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy contained a letter "virtually identical" to that sent to Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, FBI officials said Thursday. The envelope sent to Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, had been kept sealed since its Nov. 16 discovery. This week federal investigators began the delicate process of opening it, cutting the envelope with surgical scissors, then removing the letter with tweezers. They found a note, scrawled in familiar block lettering, closing with the same refrain as the Daschle letter: "Death to America; Death to Israel; Allah is Great." Unlike the previous anthrax-tainted letters, which were torn open and the envelopes discarded, the Leahy letter was intercepted by authorities before it was opened and was kept intact to preserve any possible traces of its sender. Investigators Thursday said further tests on the letter and envelope might reveal the first clues in their otherwise stalled anthrax bioterrorism investigation.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
