Posted on 10/19/2001 10:14:55 AM PDT by callisto
The woman served 250 to 300 addresses in Ewing Township, mostly homes, but also some apartment buildings and a few businesses, fellow letter carrier Jim Bittenbender said.
The woman, whom authorities have not identified, does not pick up mail from public boxes, he said, indicating any outgoing mail she received would likely have come from those addresses or from someone personally.
"That would obviously be among the many avenues we would pursue," said Sandra Carroll, an FBI spokeswoman in Newark.
Bittenbender said his colleague didn't remember handling anything unusual.
"We pick up thousands of letters from this office. One letter carrier may pick up hundreds. It's something you just don't remember," he said Friday.
He and the infected woman work at the small West Trenton post office in Ewing, one of 46 central New Jersey stations that feed into a regional distribution facility in Hamilton.
A male worker who serviced mail-sorting machines at the Hamilton office was also being tested for exposure. Results were expected Friday. Postal Inspector Tony Esposito said officials were "almost certain" he has anthrax.
Authorities confirmed the woman's skin anthrax diagnosis on Thursday.
The two workers were being treated by personal physicians and taking antibiotics, officials said. The female employee had also been treated at a local hospital and released, health officials said.
"Both are doing well," Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco said.
A third postal employee - a Levittown, Pa., man who sorts and loads mail at the regional center - developed a skin rash and was tested for anthrax exposure or infection.
Bucks County Health Commissioner Dr. Louis Polk said the 35-year-old man was being treated for a skin rash at a hospital. His test results were also expected Friday.
A Sept. 18 letter tainted with anthrax was postmarked from Trenton and mailed to Brokaw. Another contaminated letter from Trenton, mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington, was postmarked Oct. 9, after the woman was infected.
Bar codes on one of the tainted letters from Trenton indicated that the infected woman probably handled the envelope, sources said. Earlier this week, officials said the letter carrier and maintenance worker were working on days when the tainted mail would have been processed.
Postal officials examined the prestamped envelopes and video surveillance tapes for clues as to the source of the letters.
Parts of the Hamilton office were sealed Thursday, and it and the West Trenton facility were closed to the public Friday. Officials said first-class mail, which is machine sorted, would be delivered out of the West Trenton office.
Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control were in New Jersey on Friday to decide whether to give more tests to other postal employees.
Carroll also said Friday that the FBI is going to test items removed last month from the apartment of two Jersey City detainees for anthrax after The Wall Street Journal reported that the vacant apartment currently contains articles about bioterrorism.
The newspaper reported on Thursday that the unlocked apartment of Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan contained a 1995 article on sarin nerve gas and a magazine article on the National Center for Infectious Diseases. Azmath and Khan have been detained since they were picked up in Texas on an Amtrak train the day after the Sept. 11 terrorism, carrying about $5,000 and box-cutting knives similar to those used by the hijackers.
Carroll said the FBI has not returned to that apartment since a search Sept. 15 and has no immediate reason to suspect a connection between the detainees and bioterrorism.
---
On the Net:
Postal Service:
AP-ES-10-19-01 1233EDT
</FON The Post Office is in serious financial trouble now and in general, they're not hiring career employees. So the carriers in an office have to take up the slack for carriers that are off on maternity leave, sick leave, injury comp, etc. Some of the offices are really strapped.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.