Anthrax found on N.Y. mail machines

12/29/2001

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Traces of anthrax have been found again on a mail sorting machine that tested positive in October, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service said Saturday.

The machine, at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center, had been testing negative since October, but a new round of tests conducted Dec. 23 came back positive Friday night, postal officials said.

William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, said he would tell Morgan employees not to return to work until the extent of the contamination was clear.

Postal officials said that despite widespread testing in the facility — which handles 12.5 million pieces of mail each day — the third-floor machine was the only one to come back positive.

The machine will be cleaned and retested, but the facility will not be closed, McGovern said.

Traces of anthrax were discovered on five mail-sorting machines at the 10-story Morgan center in October, but Postal Service officials said they have followed guidelines for cleanup and testing.

No case of anthrax has been confirmed among New York's postal workers, but mail that likely went through Morgan is blamed for four cases of skin anthrax in the city, all of them non-lethal. A New York hospital worker died on Oct. 31 of inhalation anthrax, but officials haven't determined the source.

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On the Net:

Postal Service: http://www.usps.com/

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/