WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The Pentagon will get its forst mail call in a month on Tuesday and has installed special equipment to screen mail for anthrax and irradiate it before sending it into the building, according to the Pentagon's internal news service.
The Pentagon receives about 1.5 million pieces of mail a month. It will be opened, X-rayed and irradiated by contractors outfitted in protective suits. The mail will be opened on "down draft" tables that will suck any bacteria down and away from the workers.
Mail will be held for as long as 72 hours while test results are returned, according to the Pentagon. The first mail from the batch to be delivered from the Washington, D.C. Brentwood facility -- where four postal workers contracted anthrax from a letter -- will be be distributed beginning Nov. 26.
