- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Efforts
to rid the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building of deadly anthrax bacteria
suffered another setback on Monday when mechanical problems forced a fumigation
of its ventilation system to be halted indefinitely.
-
- Federal authorities said they would try again, but declined
to predict when. They also again refused to offer any estimate on when
the Capitol Hill building, closed for two months, may be declared safe
and reopened.
-
- At the same time, the White House said the anthrax used
in a recent series of U.S. attacks, including against Congress, likely
had an American source.
-
- Asked if investigators had concluded that the anthrax
came from a U.S. laboratory, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters,
``There is nothing that has been final, that has been concluded. But the
evidence is increasingly looking like it was a domestic source.''
-
- The Senate Hart Office Building, which houses the offices
of 50 U.S. senators, has been shut since shortly after a letter laced with
anthrax was opened on Oct. 15 in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.
-
- It was one of a number of such letters sent to locations
nationwide following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
-
- CASUALTIES
-
- Five people have died and 13 have been infected with
anthrax since the beginning of October; none of them were on Capitol Hill.
-
- On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency reported
that a Dec. 1 fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas in Daschle's office
killed all but trace amounts of anthrax. They said those traces would be
removed with chlorine dioxide liquid.
-
- In addition to Daschle's office, the offices of 11 other
senators in the Hart building have been found to have traces of anthrax,
believed to have come from the letter to Daschle or a similar one sent
to Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat.
-
- Daschle's office, which was the only one in which an
anthrax letter was opened, was by far the most contaminated. The other
offices were being cleaned with an anti-bacterial foam or liquid, authorities
said.
-
- A separate fumigation of the ventilation system in the
southeast quadrant of the Senate Hart Office Building was to have begun
Friday night. But a series of problems prevented a cleanup team to start
pumping in the chlorine dioxide gas until late Sunday.
-
- And then just seven hours later, a mechanical problem
prevented authorities from reaching the saturation level they had sought
to kill anthrax, prompting them to suspend the operation, authorities said.
-
- CONFLICTING STORIES
-
- An EPA spokeswoman mistakenly told reporters Monday that
the fumigation had been completed and tests results should be in on how
effective it was within a week.
-
- But the U.S. Capitol Police called a news conference
later in the day to say the operation had been halted before it could be
finished.
-
- ``I think it was semantics,'' Lt. Dan Nichols said when
asked about the confusion. ``It was stopped. We weren't done.''
-
- Federal authorities have declined to predict when the
Hart building will be declared safe so Daschle and 49 other senators can
return to their offices.
-
- The EPA has been required to develop procedures to confront
the unprecedented biological attacks. Authorities had hoped to reopen the
Hart building last month, but an around-the-clock cleanup operation has
taken far longer than anticipated.
-
- Nichols promised on Monday, ``We are going to overcome''
the latest problem and eventually clear the way for occupancy.
-
- The Capitol Police spokesman said a cleanup team was
being guided by ``a combination of patience and persistence.''
|
