More Spores Found in Trenton Mail Bin

TRENTON, N.J. November 20, 2001 — Traces of anthrax spores were found in a mobile mail bin at a Trenton post office, but state health officials said the bin has since been removed and decontaminated. The bin was overlooked when the Hamilton Avenue facility - known as Station E - was cleaned about 10 days ago, according to Laura Otterbourg, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department. The amounts found were minuscule and not health-threatening, officials said. The FBI test results came in last week, and Otterbourg said the bin was cleaned Friday.

Officials also said that final tests confirmed that minute amounts of anthrax were found inside the Jackson post office on Bennett's Mill Road in Ocean County. That site was decontaminated earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Postal Service announced it has moved virtually all of its nonautomated mail processing from Trenton to South River in attempt to improve efficiency as the holiday season approaches.

In a related development, the FBI conducted its own anthrax testing at four Trenton-area post offices earlier this month after trace amounts of anthrax had already been found there by the state, the Health Department said.

The testing, which occurred just hours before the buildings were cleaned, was part of an investigation, an FBI spokeswoman told The Times of Trenton for Tuesday's editions. The FBI declined to say why it again tested those facilities or where it did the additional testing.

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

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: 6 ABC - Action News