State Dept. workers concerned over anthrax

By Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Concerned State Department employees questioned senior officials Tuesday about what they perceived as a lack caution and communication after the recent discovery of anthrax at headquarters.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told a town hall meeting hundreds of employees the department has "really swung into action" to isolate and clean up contaminated sites at headquarters, at annex buildings and at embassies and consulates around the world.

"If it is ever clear that where we are working now is not safe, then we will go somewhere else to work," Powell said.

The meeting followed the announcement that trace amounts of anthrax were found in two mailrooms at department headquarters, on letters sent to the agency's Rewards for Justice Program, and in a mail pouch bound for the U.S. Embassy in Peru.

The department said the anthrax had not reached the ventilation system.

All department offices and embassies around the world that received mail from the Brentwood processing center in Washington were tested after a department mail handler was diagnosed Thursday with inhalation anthrax. Two people who worked at the Brentwood center died of inhalation anthrax.

Mailrooms throughout the department are closed and mail has not been delivered since the handler was diagnosed last week. That includes the Washington passport office and the USAID office.

Powell said the department was in close touch with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and others that have expertise on anthrax.

"There is a lot we don't know, but we are going to find out as much as we can as soon as we can," he said.

He asked the employees to "be patient" and not to "respond to every rumor that comes along or every press report."

Powell said that as representatives of the U.S. government "I think we have do everything we can to show that we are functioning, that we can get through this problem, that we are not going to overreact to the challenge before us."

He said he department would "continue to perform the mission" of foreign policy for the United States.

Employees also wanted to know why the department was not shut down for cleaning as were the Supreme Court and several buildings on Capitol Hill.

Many asked the department to close the main building, test all of the floors and offer all staff the option of taking antibiotics.

Dr. Cedric Dumont, head of the department's medical unit, said there were "inconsistencies among agencies," and the department was following the guidance of the CDC -- which "did not recommend and did not support" closing the Supreme Court or Justice Department buildings."

Dumont acknowledged many offices throughout the building "probably have some kind of contamination in them" spread through the delivery of mail -- but that "level of risk is low."

He said the department was primarily concerned with inhalation anthrax, and that when prescribing antibiotic treatment as a precaution he and his team were "making a clinical judgment call" on whether the risks of exposure for anthrax were outweighed by the potential side effects.

"Cutaneous anthrax is something that can be treated," he said. "For inhalation anthrax we feel we have covered people very well."

Assistant Secretary of State for Administration William Easton said the department was examining options for future treatment of mail before it is delivered, such as radiation or bleaching.