Anyone hear anything else about this?
-ksen
I think I need to sit down for a bit.
-ksen
Then I started reading about how the people in Florida recieved a letter with white powder in it that was like laundry soap. Now I know without a doubt that mine really was laundry soap,but it pops up in my mind everytime I read this stuff.
Cincinnati Enquirer News Update - Updated October 9, 2001 12:04 p.m.IRS center shuts down after hazardous material scare
By Patrick Crowley The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - A 3,500-employee IRS office in Covington is under a full lockdown today, and hazardous materials experts are investigating after workers reported a suspicious sticky substance in an envelope that had been handled by several people.
Emergency workers brought one woman wearing a blue business suit out of the building and began scrubbing her down in a large black tub. After scrubbing her, they removed her clothes, wrapped her twice plastic and took her to St. Elizabeth's Hospital North for further decontamination and observation.
Otherwise, no one was being allowed in or out of the Cincinnati IRS Center on Fourth street, and fire department hazmat teams were seen taking hoses into the building.
Officials placed the suspicious letter in a can, which was placed in a police car and driven to a waiting Hamilton County Sheriff's Office helicopter and flown away.
Chris Kerns, a spokesman for the IRS said the building, which can have as many as 3,500 workers in offices and 188 children in its childcare facility, is in ''standard procedure lockdown.''
The center, which processed 20 million individual and business tax returns from seven states, has had about 20 similar incidents in past 5 years.
But this lockdown, coming as the nation anticipates retribution for the U.S. bombing of Taliban and terrorist targets in Afghanistan comes only a day after six people were hosed down by hazardous materials crews at a doctor's office on Montgomery Road in Sycamore Township , following delivery of a suspicious package Monday.
Local and national officials are scrambling to increase stockpiles of medical tools to fight a potential biological attack and one such incident seems to be unfolding in south Florida.
Federal officials suspect foul play rather than an environmental source is at the root of two Florida anthrax cases that have left one man dead and hundreds of co-workers lining up for medical tests.
The FBI on Monday sealed off the Boca Raton offices of American Media Inc., where both men worked, and agents donned protective gear before going inside.
The IRS center can have up to 188 children in its childcare center for employees. About 5,000 people are employed by the IRS in Cincinnati, with about 3,500 working at the center.
The Associated Press and Enquirer staffers Lori Hayes, Amy Higgins and Chris Mayhew contributed to this report.
http://enquirer.com/midday/midday1.html