- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
top U.S. postal official told Americans on Wednesday there was no guarantee
that their mail was safe from anthrax and they should wash their hands
after handling it.
-
- ``We're telling people that there is a threat -- that
right now the threat is in the mail,'' Postmaster General John Potter said
during a round of morning television appearances. ``There are no guarantees
that mail is safe.''
-
- Three people have died of anthrax and at least nine others
have been infected from letters sent through the mail since the United
States struck Afghanistan in a war against terrorism after the Sept. 11
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
-
- In a separate interview, Surgeon General David Satcher,
the top U.S. health official, called on the public to be on high alert
against possible germ warfare.
-
- ``We've never been through a bioterrorist attack before,''
he said on the NBC ``Today'' program. ``We certainly have never experienced
people being infected (by) anthrax in a closed envelop.''
-
- He added: ``I don't think yet we're beyond our capability
(to cope), but I think we have to continue to strengthen that capability.''
Congress can fund more laboratory workers, for instance, he said.
-
- Satcher and Potter were dealing with the possibility
that even unopened mail could pick up anthrax spores if the equipment on
which they were sorted had been contaminated, though Potter said the chances
were remote.
-
- The Postal Service was giving employees masks to protect
against any airborne spores and was introducing gloves in the workplace.
-
- Large parts of the U.S. Capitol were closed temporarily
after a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office spilled anthrax
spores and many cases have been found at the main Washington sorting office
that earlier handled the Daschle letter. Other cases have been found in
New York, New Jersey and Florida.
-
- Workers at the Brentwood mail facility, which delivers
mail to the Capitol, have been hardest hit by the crisis. Two have died
from anthrax inhalation and two remain hospitalized in serious condition.
Six others are suspected of having the disease, health officials said on
Wednesday.
-
- WHITE HOUSE MAIL AFFECTED
-
- Some spores were discovered on Tuesday on mail-opening
equipment that handles packages for the White House, at a site several
miles from the executive mansion. Officials said they were confident there
was no medical threat. ''We think that the chances (of contracting anthrax
through the mail) are very, very slim,'' Potter said. But ``people should
do things that are safe and when they handle mail, they should wash their
hands.''
-
- Satcher said he thought the United States was obviously
under attack. ``And we don't understand what the attacker is going to do
next or what strategies are going to be used,'' he said in the NBC interview.
-
- The U.S. Postal Service has delivered more than 20 billion
pieces of mail since Sept. 11 and only a few pieces are now known to have
carried the deadly bacteria.
-
- In an interview on CNN, Potter said he saw no reason
to shut down the U.S. Postal Service, as the House of Representatives shut
at the end of last week briefly for precautionary checks.
-
- ``Life is filled with risks,'' he said. ``You could die
crossing the street, you could die driving a car. That's not to minimize
what's going on here because we did lose two of our own but it's to suggest
that you just don't shut the Postal Service down.''
-
- Potter said the Postal Service was advising its workers
to root out suspicious letters.
-
- ``We're looking to intervene by targeted screening today,''
he said. Ultimately, the service plans use electron beams to irradiate
the mail to kill germ warfare agents. The first such irradiation units
were expected by Nov. 1, he said.
-
- The White House said on Tuesday that the Postal Service
would change the way it cleans machines used in processing the mail. Rather
than using air guns, the machines will be vacuumed in an effort to avert
the spread of any anthrax spores.
-
- Meanwhile, the head of a commercial printing company
that prints direct mailings said there were likely to be major changes
in the way companies send out advertising circulars.
-
- William Davis of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., said
companies might have to start being more specific about who they are in
any mass mailings, referring to sometimes vague return addresses on advertising
material.
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