The mailroom at the Department of Education headquarters in Washington that tested positive for anthrax last week remains closed, and ED mailrooms are currently being cleaned as a precaution, a process that should take several days. Only a trace amount of anthrax spores was found in the headquarters mailroom.
In the interim, temporary mail facilities have been set up in ED's headquarters, and all mail coming into the Department is being irradiated at a mail facility in Ohio. A Department spokesperson suggested that anyone sending mail to ED's Washington headquarters may want to verify its receipt.
The original announcement by ED on the anthrax discovery said that "the findings are low-level and secondary indicators and are not considered dangerous to the mailroom staff or to other" employees. It also noted that the results of the testing at ED were consistent with the findings in other federal mail rooms that receive mail from the Brentwood postal facility that processes mail for much of Washington, DC.
Posted November 28, 2001 on the NASFAA Web Site www.nasfaa.org
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