A Senate rattled by a ricin attack began returning to regular business and the lack of any reported illnesses led leaders to plan to reopen office buildings.
Even so, officials continued to say they did not know how the powdery poison arrived Monday in the mailroom of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Frist said he assumed it came in the mail because the powder was found on the tray of a machine his aides use to cut open envelopes.
PHOTO: EPA
As lawmakers on Wednesday awaited the results of tests measuring the ricin's potency, officials said none of the several dozen workers who were potentially exposed seemed ill.
"I am not following anybody with any symptoms that would be consistent with a toxic exposure," said John Eisold, the US Capitol attending physician.
The Postal Service said all tests for ricin at its District of Columbia facility that processes congressional mail were negative. The station, closed as a precaution, was to reopen Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday night, a white powder was found on the first floor of the Capitol, but tests for hazardous substances were negative. The building was not evacuated.
Bowing to growing complaints, Senate leaders were even letting senators and aides briefly re-enter their offices to remove needed documents and equipment. That included the fourth-floor corridor in the Dirksen Senate office building where the deadly toxin was discovered in Frist's mailroom.
"It's completely normal in there," said Laurie Schultz Heim, an aide to Senator James Jeffords, who said she spent less than 10 minutes removing items from his offices. Yet with the entire Capitol complex subject to continuous air sampling, no one was willing to say the threat was over.
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