- WASHINGTON (UPI) - The House
Minority Leader said Tuesday it was time to stop parsing words about the
type of anthrax found on Capitol Hill and in nearby postal facilities,
calling it "weapons grade material" and a sophisticated product.
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- Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., emerged from a morning meeting
with President Bush to tell reporters: "This is weapons grade material.
This is serious material and we've got to err on the side of caution."
Gephardt said he believes the investigation of anthrax found on Capitol
Hill and at the nearby Brentwood postal facility keys on a mail sorting
machine that puts pressure on letters as it processes them for delivery.
He said such pressure could allow anthrax bacteria spores to escape through
the minute holes in the envelope paper.
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- "The machine, I think was the critical factor,"
he said. "I've been saying for some time we've been dealing with a
sophisticated product. I think we've got to stop parsing words and being
anything other than accurate about what it is."
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- Gephardt's comments are yet another flip-flop on the
anthrax debate. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, as
well as other congressional leaders, have said in the past week the anthrax
was "garden variety," without any indication of being altered
to make it a weapon, because it was responsive to antibiotic treatment.
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- The Capitol was open for business Tuesday, however House
and Senate office buildings remained closed as security officials continue
to sweep for anthrax spores. Anthrax has been confirmed in the Hart building
office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in the Hart mailroom,
in the mailroom of the Ford building and at the Brentwood mail facility
that serves Capitol Hill.
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- Two Brentwood postal workers are hospitalzed at Inova
Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va., with inhalation anthrax infection. Two
other Brentwood postal workers have died and their cases are strongly suspected
to be anthrax, but final test results were pending. Twenty-eight congressional
staff members on the Hill have been exposed to anthrax, according to Capitol
Police Lt. Dan Nichols, the number unchanged for days despite the testing
of more than 5,000 people.
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- A number of other individuals are being watched for flu-like
symptoms that suggest possible infection, authorities said. Washington
Mayor Anthony Williams said a central reporting system for patients with
anthrax-like symptoms was set up through the district's public health system.
At least 10 people have been diagnosed with anthrax infection -- in New
York, Florida, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey. Four -- two in Florida
and two in Washington -- have come down with the more deadly inhaled form,
while the rest have the type that is contracted through cuts or abrasions
on the skin. Robert Stevens, 63, the photo editor for American Media's
Sun tabloid in Boca Raton, Fla., died of inhaled anthrax infection Oct.
5 and remains the only confirmed fatality.
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- While the Brentwood postal facility and an airmail postal
site near BWI Airport remained closed Tuesday while workers check for additional
anthrax spores, in South Florida, the Postal Workers Union said it is planning
to sue the U.S. Postal Service and perhaps postal officials to force them
to test its 3,300 members.
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- "Why are the postal workers the first to touch this
mail and the last to be tested?" asked Judy Johnson, president of
the union local.
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- Health officials said only tiny amounts of anthrax spores
were found in three Palm Beach County mail facilities that serve American
Media.
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- Health officials said there have been no new infections
of postal employees and there is no cause for further testing. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention said it has pulled out of Boca Raton
because outbreak there appears to have run its course.
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- But state officials said there may be more exposures
of American Media employees as the results of retests of 300 employees
come in.
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- "Before the event is over, we'll probably have additional
numbers of people we believe were exposed," he said. "The numbers
will grow as we go into the final phases of the operation." They
may not be in danger, however, because they are already undergoing treatment
with antibiotics.
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- The federal Environmental Protection Agency continued
surveying the three-story building for anthrax spores as it prepares for
the agency's first "bio-cleanup." The EPA generally deals with
oil and chemical spills.
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- The EPA said $500,000 has been cleared from its Superfund
program to finance the cleanup, but the amount needed has not been determined.
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- The Coast Guard has sent a strike team to help, and the
Florida National Guard is also sending civil support team members.
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