Fri, January 3, 2003
[url=cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/01/03/8769-cp.html]Edmonton police say anthrax found in CFC-bound package at postal outlet[/url]
(CP) - About 150 postal workers were quarantined early Friday morning after letters addressed to Canada's firearms registry and suspected of being contaminated by anthrax were found at an Edmonton postal outlet.
Initially, Edmonton police Sgt. Patrick Tracy said tests had confirmed the letters were tainted by the deadly biological weapon. But Karen Carlson, a spokeswoman for the Edmonton fire department, later explained that about 10 tests had been done and only one had shown positive, with the rest showing negative. "We're still in the process of testing it further," Carlson said.
"It might be looking at this point that it was a false-positive. What will happen now is we will complete the testing process here and then send the sample to a lab where it can be further tested."
Carlson said workers at the sorting facility noticed dust rising into the air after a few envelopes had gone through the sorter.
"That alarmed them definitely as something they don't see every day," she said. "Emergency crews were called in as soon as the employees noticed that."
Tracy said a couple of workers who had actually handled the suspicious envelopes were taken to hospital as a precaution, but they did not appear to be suffering any ill effects.
Carlson said another 150 workers were kept inside the building, while a large crowd who had just shown up for a shift change were kept outside.
"Other than our emergency response crews, nobody else is allowed inside and the people inside are not allowed out," Carlson said.
"That's just a precautionary measure. We just want to make sure we are 100 per cent sure about the results of the test."