Widespread Contamination

HAMILTON, N.J.: Workers at the Trenton regional post office were called in by the hundreds Sunday for anthrax testing and to fill out questionnaires on their whereabouts and work assignments on the days that anthrax-tainted letters may have come through.

State health officials continued testing the sprawling complex after early results found widespread anthrax contamination in 13 separate work areas.

The Hamilton facility processed at least three anthrax-laced letters addressed to NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the "Editor" at the New York Post.

Two Trenton-area postal workers have confirmed cases of anthrax, and Postal Inspector Tony Esposito has said he's almost certain tests on a maintenance worker from the Hamilton facility will come back positive. Many postal workers took the occasion Sunday to make a side trip to a Hamilton hospital for free prescriptions of Cipro, an antibiotic effective in eradicating anthrax bacteria to prevent rashes or sickness. Security personnel at the hospital said more than 200 came through early Sunday and the clinic would reopen Sunday evening. The state health department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called workers from each section of the facility Sunday, asking them to undergo nasal swab tests and complete questionnaires detailing when and where they work.

"They told me to come down to get tested, to find out where I work in the building," said postal worker Brendan Sheehan, who repairs mail-processing machinery. "They are trying to determine a pattern as to where that letter was."

Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the state epidemiologist, told members of the American Postal Workers Union Saturday that preliminary results found anthrax in 13 of 23 samples taken from work areas.

"That's along the path letters travel through the mechanized equipment," Esposito said Sunday.

Bresnitz expected conclusive results from work areas late Sunday. None of the samples taken from the building's public areas were contaminated.

Preliminary results on 19 samples taken from the West Trenton post office last week came back negative on Sunday night, health officials said.

After taking the samples, health officials planned to bring in a contractor to clean the facility – a process Bresnitz said could take a month. Periodic testing will be done to make sure the cleanup has eradicated any trace of anthrax, Bresnitz said.

All mail would be removed from the building, sterilized and delivered, Bresnitz said.

Meanwhile, a trailer with postal boxes has been set up in the customer parking lot so residents who use P.O. boxes could start getting their mail again Monday. Workers were also erecting massive tents in the processing center's back lot so local mail handling could resume, according to Ken Smith, a letter carrier for 23 years.

Smith came in Sunday to make sure his temporary mail bins were set up for local delivery. He stopped off at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton on his way in, so he could pick up his seven-day supply of Cipro even though he does not work inside the processing center.

"I never thought of this, but I have got to tell you, I am still more afraid of a dog. I was bit six months ago. Dogs still go higher on the list for me," Smith said. "I think if I hear that somebody got really sick out of here, I will be a whole lot more nervous."

But Sheehan said the news about the Washington postal worker becoming seriously ill has put him on edge. He began taking Cipro Sunday morning.

"It has got me a little shook up. It is kind of nerve wracking," Sheehan said. "I haven't gotten anything official from the Postal Service as to what is going on. I am finding out pretty much most of my information from the media."

Last week, state health officials recommended all workers from the Hamilton Township and West Trenton facilities see a physician and start the seven-day course of antibiotics as a precaution.

But Susan McClure, a health department spokeswoman, said the treatment should not interfere with nasal swab tests because workers have not been on antibiotics more than a couple days. Initial tests on two infected workers came back negative because they had been on antibiotics.

Steve Bahrle, branch president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, contends all workers at the facility were put at risk because mail-processing equipment was, until late last week, cleaned using pressurized air, which likely caused spores to be spread throughout the facility. The union represents 190 of the 1,000 employees at the facility.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News