Friday, October 26, 2001

Ridge: Anthrax mailed to House ÔalteredÕ
By David Espo
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A State Department mail handler lay ill with inhalation anthrax Thursday and the besieged Postal Service set up spot checks at facilities nationwide as the bioterror scare widened.

“We still don’t know who is responsible,” said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

At a White House news conference, Ridge also disclosed that the anthrax contained in mail addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had been altered to make it more of a threat. “It is highly concentrated. It is pure and the spores are smaller,” he said. “Therefore they’re more dangerous because they can be more easily absorbed in a person’s respiratory system.”

Ridge identified the strain of anthrax used in the U.S. attacks as Ames, a substance named for the university city in Iowa, and used in American bio-weapons research and in vaccine testing.

Three weeks into the nation’s unprecedented bioterrorism scare, lawmakers were permitted to return to several of their office buildings on Capitol Hill. And White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there had been no evidence of anthrax exposure among officials there who came in contact with mail that went through an off-site machine where anthrax was detected earlier in the week.

“We are here to conduct the nation’s business. We will not be frightened,” said Secretary of State Colin Powell as he appeared before a Senate committee.

But there were words of caution elsewhere. “We are very concerned about additional letters. We would be naive to think this is over yet,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.