A private company checked for signs of anthrax at Cincinnati's main postal distribution facility in Queensgate on Wednesday in what officials described as a “random inspection.”

Wearing a protective mask, a postal worker walks to a loading dock at the postal center on Dalton Avenue. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Although some of the inspectors were wearing protective suits, officials clearly expected to find no dangerous substances because the daily flow of more than 7 million pieces of mail through the facility continued unabated.

        “We are conducting business as usual. We are confident that the findings will be negative,” said Tom Lang, human resources manager for the U.S. Postal Service's Cincinnati processing and distribution center.

        A team of four inspectors, including a man and a woman in hazmat suits, collected samples from various places in the two-building, 746,000-square-foot Dalton Street facility.

        None of the facility's 2,000 employees were evacuated, no hot zones were established, and trucks full of mail were allowed to come and go uninterrupted.

        Results from the sampling are expected in four to five days, said spokeswoman Bonni Manies.

POSTAL PLANT

Facilities: Two main buildings totaling 746,000 square feet provide space for mail sorting machines and loading docks for trucks.     Location: Queensgate, 1591 Dalton Ave.     Employees: About 2,000.     Mail volume: more than 7 million pieces per day.

        Prompted by several cases of anthrax exposure since Sept. 11 among postal workers in New Jersey and Washington D.C., including at least two deaths, the Cincinnati facility was one of 264 postal facilities nationwide randomly selected for anthrax checks. Cincinnati was 171st on the list.

        Ms. Manies said she did not know how much the inspection cost.

        “It was something employees knew was coming, to give them some peace of mind,” she said. “So they don't have to wonder, is this piece of equipment contaminated?”

        Clyde Patterson, branch president for Local 304 of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, said the Postal Service should make anthrax testing a regular event.

        “I think there should be an ongoing series of tests. They need to budget some money for that,” Mr. Patterson said.

        The testing was performed by IT Corp., a subsidiary of the Pittsburgh-based IT Group, a publicly traded environmental engineering company with 8,000 employees nationwide.

        Nationwide, anthrax exposures have killed four people and caused non-fatal anthrax disease in another 13 people. Tens of thousands of Americans are taking antibiotics as a precaution because they might have been exposed.

        No new cases of anthrax have been reported in the past eight days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection.

       The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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