HARTFORD, Conn., April 26 (UPI) -- Health officials have found more anthrax on the ceiling of a Connecticut postal distribution center that six months ago handled contaminated mail addressed to two U.S. senators and lead to the death of an elderly woman, it was reported Friday.
Officials assured the public, however, that the dormant spores posed no immediate health threat and that talks were under way to decide how and when to decontaminate the Wallingford Processing & Distribution Center, the largest in the state, the Hartford Courant said.
The state Department of Public Health said three of 103 samples taken Sunday tested positive for anthrax spores.
"These seem to be residual spores from the contamination last October, not a new thing," said William Gerrish, a Department of Public Health spokesman. He said officials "don't feel that this presents an immediate threat to the postal workers or the public."
The samples were taken from the ceiling over three of four sorting machines that investigators believe processed contaminated mail addressed to Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; and Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt.
Officials also believe cross-contaminated mail processed there went to Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of Oxford, Conn., who died of inhalation anthrax last November.
Those machines were cleaned in December, officials said. but the ceiling and air ducts were not tested at that time.
There were no immediate plans to close the facility, although postal employees who would prefer to work elsewhere will be allowed to do so, union officials said.
One concern was how to prevent the dormant spores from becoming a potential health threat by becoming airborne during any decontamination process, officials said.
Some postal workers believe they are being used as "laboratory rats," one postal employee told the Courant after learning Thursday night about the positive tests.
"It's easy for people who don't have to work in here to say that there's no health risk, but for us, we wonder every day," said the employee, who worked on the machine that handled Lundgren's mail.
He said dust from the ceiling fell on him a few weeks ago.
