Posted on 03/14/2005 4:57:45 PM PST by RaceBannon
By John D. Banusiewicz American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 14, 2005 - Defense Department officials confirmed that a positive test for the presence of anthrax bacteria during routine mail operations today led to the evacuation of a Pentagon outbuilding. However, officials stressed, subsequent tests have been negative.
WASHINGTON, March 14, 2005 - Defense Department officials confirmed that a positive test for the presence of anthrax bacteria during routine mail operations today led to the evacuation of a Pentagon outbuilding. However, officials stressed, subsequent tests have been negative.
The Pentagon issued a statement saying the department is taking precautionary measures while conducting further testing of the Remote Delivery Facility, where the Pentagon’s mail is delivered.
Officials emphasized that the mail already had been irradiated under procedures put into place after a mail-borne anthrax attack killed several people in and around Washington in October 2001. If anthrax had been killed by the irradiation, officials explained, initial screening likely would still produce a positive indication.
DoD officials notified and briefed all mail-facility workers of the positive test. Officials said others who may have come in contact with the mail are being contacted and briefed as well. About 175 people work in and around the mail facility, and about 100 others may have come in contact with the mail during the delivery process, officials said.
All personnel who may have had contact with deliveries are being asked to provide nasal-swab cultures and are being provided with a three-day regimen of antibiotics to cover the period of further testing. The U.S. Army Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., is conducting confirmatory tests, and the results are expected in two to three days, officials said.
Any positive tests will be reported, and the personnel will be contacted, officials added.
Someone exposed to anthrax would experience fever, sweats and chills, officials said, noting that the typical onset of symptoms does not take place for several days.
Pentagon officials said they’re working closely with Arlington County, Va., officials, as well as with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service.
People who think they might have had contact with mail at the facility but have not yet been seen by a health care professional should contact the DiLorenzo Tricare Health Clinic at (703) 692-8810.
Related Article:
Hazardous Materials Teams Investigating Alarm on Pentagon Reservation [http://www.dod.mil/news/Mar2005/20050314_177.html]
Remember how often anthrax tests came back positive and then later proved to be nothing? It's frustrating for officials, I'm sure. Not knowing how careful to be.
Your tinfoil hat is canted a bit. Some of the rays must have gotten through.
Thanks for posting this.
According to this link:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050315/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pentagon_hazmat&e=1&ncid=
it looks pretty much like the real thing.
I don't get that at all from the Yahoo article.
I'd put the chances of it being a false positive at about 99.5%.
I'm a betting man,$10.00 it's false.
Or it could just be a false positive reading on the test. It happens.
They use the word tests - plural.
One positive and more than one negative results.
The positive test was in error, IMHO.
Lol. You would know, woulldn't you? You recognize one of your own.
Yes, it could.
TWO separate tests in TWO separate facilities were positive. What are the odds that two false positives would happen at the same time at two different facilities?
"Sensors at two military mail facilities in the Washington area detected signs of anthrax (search) on two pieces of mail, but the mail had already been irradiated, rendering any anthrax inert, defense officials told FOX News late Monday. "
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150423,00.html
Three buildings closed until further notice...
Building #5109, 5111, 5113
Thousands of workers (3000?) have been locked down for 8 hours today. They started letting people out about an hour ago. This is in Bailey's Crossroads (Skyline), a few miles from the pentagon.
If the same substance caused the false positive was on multiple copies, not high at all.
I saw that as well. Looks like the real deal. My worry with anthrax is that it may have been put in other places without detection devices.
Crosslinking:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1362631/posts
Pentagon building has bio-chem alert
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