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FCC Suspends US Postal Service Deliveries After Anthrax Discovery
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 4, 2002--The FCC has suspended US Postal Service mail deliveries to its off-site mail facility in Capitol Heights, Maryland, after "a scant amount of anthrax contamination" was detected last week during US Public Health Service testing. The FCC said the amount of anthrax found was "too small to deliver an infectious dose."
The FCC moved its mail reception, processing and screening center out of FCC headquarters in Washington, DC, to the Maryland facility after the initial anthrax contamination incident on Capitol Hill last fall. The Commission has been urging everyone to file applications and documents via e-mail or fax whenever possible.
USPHS testing done as a precaution January 26 at the FCC's request turned up what the FCC characterized as "a residual trace amount of material resulting from cross-contamination of mail." The FCC said it was told by the USPHS that there was no reason to be concerned about handling mail already delivered, but the Commission said it was suspending mail deliveries at least until it had obtained final test results this week from the Centers for Disease Control.
The Capitol Heights anthrax situation was not expected to have any impact at all on mail destined for the FCC's Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, facility, which handles Amateur Radio licensing and enforcement matters. The Gettysburg office now handles its own incoming mail at an off-site facility. Before that arrangement was made last fall, however, some FCC-Gettysburg mail was sent for decontamination along with other FCC mail. Apparently waylaid in the process was mail containing paper Amateur Radio vanity call sign applications for the last couple of weeks of October, forcing the FCC to halt all vanity processing. Only recently has the FCC been able to contact applicants and have them reconstruct and resubmit their applications. So far, the FCC has processed vanity applications received through October 22.
Last Friday, the FCC resumed processing commercial overnight deliveries--such as FedEx, UPS and DHL--and hand-delivered packages that are received at Capitol Heights away from the mail processing area.
The FCC said hand or messenger-deliveries at its 236 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, DC, filing window were not affected by the situation at Capitol Heights. "Filings will continue to be accepted and processed by the Office of the Secretary at that site," the FCC said.
The FCC also has arranged for Capitol Heights contract mail employees to get antibiotics, and a USPHS doctor has met with FCC staff and employees.
"The Capitol Heights mail handling facility will undergo decontamination procedures to ensure that there are no other small traces at the site," the FCC said in a "Fact Sheet" posted on its Web site. The FCC said it will continue to test the Capitol Heights facility periodically.--FCC
Page last modified: 09:58 AM, 05 Feb 2002 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2002, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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