Anthrax scare proves harmless

Published Oct. 24, 2001

Mary Hopkin
Herald staff writer

HERMISTON - Authorities say a sugarlike substance discovered inside an envelope at the Umatilla Chemical Depot on Oct. 17 was not anthrax.

Depot spokeswoman Mary Binder said the substance tested negative for anthrax at a government lab at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.

A Washington Demilitarization employee found the substance inside an 11-by-17-inch envelope while opening mail in the incinerator site's document control center last week.

Binder said the envelope, which also contained an equipment operations and maintenance manual, was sent from one of the depot's regular suppliers in New York.

The depot's hazardous materials team went to the site Oct. 17, double-bagged the envelope and decontaminated the area, Binder said. On Thursday, Army chemical and biological weapons experts collected the envelope and took it to Utah for testing.

Thirteen employees were taken to the depot's medical clinic and given antibiotics, Binder said. The depot clinic doesn't have the capability to test for anthrax, but nasal swipes were taken from some of the employees.

None of those swipes actually made it to a lab for anthrax testing, though.

"We got the results back before those were sent out," Binder said.

 

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