22 October 2001
Two U.S. Postal Worker Deaths Probably Caused by Anthrax, Officials Say
(But final, definitive medical tests still not in) (750)
By Wendy S. Ross
Washington File White House Correspondent
Washington -- The death of two postal workers in the nation's capital
may have been caused by the inhaled form of anthrax, Homeland Security
Director Tom Ridge and other officials told reporters at a White House
news briefing October 22.
"It is very clear that their symptoms are suspicious and their deaths
are likely due to anthrax," Ridge said, but "final, definitive medical
tests" as to the cause of their deaths are still some hours away.
Both men, one of whom died October 21, the other October 22, worked at
the Brentwood postal facility in Washington, where an anthrax-tainted
letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle several days before
was processed.
In addition, two other postal workers from the Brentwood facility are
in the hospital being treated with antibiotics after having tested
positive for anthrax inhalation, Ridge said.
The Brentwood facility and an airmail handling facility in Maryland
near Baltimore-Washington International Airport have been closed
indefinitely.
Post Master General John Potter said "Our postal family is deeply
saddened by today's news, and shaken by the thought of terrorists
using the U.S. mail as a tool for their evil."
"Our hearts are heavy knowing that two co-workers have become the
latest victims of terrorism. It's clear to us, like other symbols of
American freedom and power, the mail and our employees have become a
target of terrorists. It is equally clear that we must take
extraordinary steps to protect them both."
Potter also said the Postal Service will not curtail its mail delivery
service. It processes about 208,000 million pieces of mail yearly, he
said, and has delivered 20,000 million items since the terrorist
attacks of September 11.
The Postal Service, he said, is considering putting mail through
ultraviolet light equipment to sanitize it, as is done with food,
surgical equipment and medical supplies.
Potter said the Postal Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
will jointly provide a $1 million dollar reward for information that
will lead to arrests of the person or persons responsible for the
anthrax attacks, and he said hoax cases will be criminally prosecuted.
"We've lost two of our own," said President of the National
Association of Letter Carriers Vincent Sombrotto, but he said this
"heinous way" of intimidating the Postal Service will not succeed.
"We will not be deterred from doing our job," he said. "We are all
soldiers in this war" against terrorism.
"We have a proud history of more than 200 years of delivering, under
all circumstances, as arduous and as difficult as they may be," he
said. "This is another one of those circumstances where we have to
rise to the occasion."
Testing has begun on more than 2,000 postal employees at the
Washington and Maryland facilities for possible anthrax exposure.
Questioned about why it has taken so long for the decision to be made
to test the workers at the two facilities, Dr. Mitch Cohen of the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said "Much of what we've determined
has been from the previous investigations. This is really a new
phenomena. At first, we had no evidence that any of the mail handlers
were at risk. So this phenomena of first having skin disease in New
Jersey and now having inhalational disease is an evolution.
"Now how it's actually occurring isn't clear, and that's part of our
epidemiologic investigation -- is to try to track down what are those
kinds of exposures and try to eliminate them, so that we can make
things safer."
"The postal system is every much a part of this country as our
national highway system," Ridge said. "And it's pretty clear that
whoever decided to challenge the postal system by using anthrax to not
only disrupt service but take the lives of the men and women" show
clearly "that we have casualties not just offshore, we have casualties
in the towers in New York, we have casualties in the Post Office. So
it's pretty clear that this speaks to one war in two battlefields."
Ridge said "checklists that give specific and detailed guidelines on
how to handle suspicious packages" can be found on the U.S. Postal
Service's Web site at www.usps.gov, or by accessing CDC's Web site at
www.cdc.gov.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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