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US Capitol sees anthrax again

Trace amounts of anthrax were discovered in the offices of four more lawmakers in congressional buildings where it had earlier been found.

The health threat was deemed minimal.

"We have always been concerned about mail that has been contaminated by other mail," Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician, said Saturday at a news conference outside the Capitol, the domed landmark where legislative sessions are held.

But he said the trace amounts found "are not a public health risk; they are not an inhalational risk; they are not a cutaneous risk."

Anthrax was found in several spots in the Hart Senate office building, where a letter containing anthrax was opened Oct. 15 in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Spores were found in the offices of Senators Larry Craig of Idaho, Bob Graham of Florida and Dianne Feinstein of California.

It was also found in the sixth floor offices of Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland in the Longworth House office building. It appears that teams that closed an adjacent office where anthrax had been discovered accidentally brought the spores back into Cummings' office, said Lieutenant Dan Nichols of the Capitol Police.

Craig said anthrax in his office probably came from the letter to Daschle.

"It came as shock to all of us," Craig said. "They're using the term `cross-contamination' because of the slight amount that was found there. It might have been a stack in our office that was in same mail cart as the Daschle letter."

Craig said that while he has not been tested and is not taking antibiotics, those precautions have been offered to his staff.

Feinstein said "the medical risk is virtually zero." She said her staff has not reported any medical problems that can be associated with anthrax.

Feinstein's spokesman, Jim Hock, said all of the senator's staff tested negative for anthrax exposure.

Graham's spokesman, Paul Anderson, said a minute amount of anthrax was found in the area where the staff sorts mail. He said all of Graham's staff tested negative for anthrax exposure.

The Daschle letter led to the shutdown of all six major House and Senate office buildings, as well as the House side of the Capitol, for testing that revealed evidence of the bacteria in several other locations in the complex.

Other spots in the Hart building where isolated spores were found -- a freight elevator and a staircase -- were cleaned last week with an anti-bacterial foam.

Senate leaders had hoped to decontaminate the building with chlorine dioxide gas and reopen it on Nov. 13. But experts expressed concerns about whether the gas would work uniformly in the nine-story building.

It is now uncertain when all 50 senators who work there -- half the Senate -- can reoccupy their offices.

Anthrax has killed four people and sickened more than a dozen others since the first anthrax-by-mail case was reported early last month. Media outlets in New York and Florida and government offices in Washington have been targeted, and officials say they have no clue who's behind the attacks.
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