Four New Anthrax Traces in N.J. P Os

TRENTON, N.J. Anthrax has been found at four more New Jersey post offices in a potential break in the search for the source of contaminated letters sent to Washington and New York, The Associated Press learned Friday. Tests found minute traces of anthrax in each of the small satellite offices, a state official said on condition of anonymity. Details were expected to be released at a news conference later Friday.

The post offices are in Rocky Hill, Princeton Borough, Trenton and Jackson Township, the source said.

All send mail to a regional processing center in Hamilton, which handled the three tainted letters sent to the Washington office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and to the New York offices of NBC and the New York Post.

The source of the anthrax has been the subject of a huge criminal investigation. Four people have died in the nation's outbreak and more than a dozen others have been infected, including five in New Jersey.

Authorities have said all five cases and two more suspected cases can be traced to the Hamilton plant, just outside Trenton. It was closed after anthrax was found inside.

The germ has also been found at one of Hamilton's feeder post offices in Princeton and at a regional facility in Bellmawr, 30 miles southwest of Trenton. The Hamilton office, which handles mail from 46 smaller offices, remains closed.

Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco ordered the testing at the smaller post offices after an accountant who works near the Hamilton plant contracted skin anthrax. She was the first person in New Jersey to contract the disease who was not a postal worker.

Fifteen samples were taken at each of the four post offices; one sample from each came back positive.

The news came as postal workers in New York lost a court battle to shut down a huge processing center where anthrax was found on several machines.

Workers returned Thursday night to the Bellmawr facility after Postal Service officials agreed to continue testing for anthrax. The plant serves 159 local post offices and delivers mail to 1.1 million locations in southern New Jersey and parts of Delaware.

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

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News