Anthrax fears keep mail sorters on edge

ST. LOUIS -- In mailrooms around the St. Louis area, anthrax anxiety is prompting extra precautions as another round of reports about toxin-laced letters surfaced around the nation.

Though state health officials are looking into about a dozen cases of suspicious substances, there have been no known reports of anthrax in Missouri in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Still, people are on edge.

In East St. Louis, Ill., a Planned Parenthood clinic was one of at least 90 Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide that received threatening letters containing a white powder.

The letter contained the message, "You've been exposed to anthrax. We're going to kill all of you," and was signed "Army of God," said Ann Glazier, Planned Parenthood's national director of security.

A worker wearing gloves opened the letter over a bin in a biohazard room -- Planned Parenthood's procedure for opening mail.

Authorities took the letter to be analyzed.

In Madison County, Ill., officials awaited final word from lab tests on a suspicious substance discovered Saturday at a Collinsville post office. After encountering the substance, three postal workers were taken by ambulance to a Maryville hospital. They were treated and released a few hours later.

Preliminary results on FBI samples sent to a state health lab do not indicate anthrax, said Don Brannon, administrator of the Madison County Health Department.

The U.S. Postal Service and some other employers around the region are offering surgical gloves and face masks to mail handlers. At the Postal Service's bulk-mail center in Hazelwood, about 10 of the center's 450 mail handlers were wearing gloves or face masks Monday.

"I think some people are nervous," said John Stauder, accounting manager for KSDK Channel 5, where the station's mail sorter now wears gloves on the job.

In Jefferson City, a briefing on mail safety for state workers and managers that was expected to attract about 25 state workers drew 200. Mark Allen, assistant director of state facilities management, told them to be vigilant about handling mail but not to worry about wearing masks or gloves.

"That's totally unnecessary," Allen said.

Governor's mail

Jerry Nachtigal, Gov. Bob Holden's spokesman, said the person who opens the mail in the governor's office will do so in a different room. It will be a smaller office across the hall, where no one else will be present.

In St. Louis, Mayor Francis Slay is asking the city's health department to conduct a seminar for city workers on precautionary measures for opening mail.

Last week, an assistant opening the mayor's mail felt something bulky -- an instant warning sign. She contacted the mayor's security detail, who opened the package.

The contents: A button that said, "God Bless America."