Workers at three federal mail centers put on anti-anthrax medication

The Centers for Disease Control has taken the precautionary measure of putting workers at three Washington-area federal mail centers on the antibiotic Cipro. The three centers, which handle mail for the State Department, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency, all receive mail from the U.S. Postal Service's main Washington facility on Brentwood Road. The Brentwood facility processed a letter laced with anthrax bacteria that was sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Two Brentwood employees died as the result of exposure to anthrax and two others are in critical condition. The Postal Service has put all Washington-area employees on Cipro. Meanwhile, mail handlers in Miami plan to file suit against the agency Monday demanding that all postal facilities in anthrax-affected areas be tested and equipped with new safety equipment. It will be the first such litigation filed during the three-week anthrax scare. Postal Service officials were not available for comment Friday and sources at the American Postal Workers Union national headquarters did not comment. During the past week, union leaders have gone out of their way to avoid placing blame for the anthrax response. The Postal Service is taking steps to protect workers across the country. It has purchased 86 million pairs of vinyl gloves-three pairs of gloves per employee. The agency also purchased 4 million facemasks designed to filter air contaminants, including anthrax spores. Use of the masks and gloves is voluntary, but the agency is highly recommending their use. "I'm wearing gloves now," said Van Nguyen, a letter carrier in Northwest Washington, interviewed outside D.C. General Hospital, where he was tested for anthrax exposure. "The first couple of days I was not really nervous. Now I am." But most carriers interviewed outside the hospital said they would not wear the gloves, primarily because of the message it would send to the American public. More than a dozen postal employees interviewed were frustrated that the CDC took so long to recommend testing for postal employees. Testing did not start until several days after the contaminated letter showed up in Daschle's office. The CDC traced the letter backwards from Daschle's office to a post office where mail for Capitol Hill goes after being sorted at Brentwood. The CDC's tests did not initially find strains of anthrax at the post office.