Hill Aides Complain About Health Problems From Handling Irradiated Mail

The Bulletin's Frontrunner
January 30, 2002

The Hill (1/28, Rothstein) reports, "As many as 25 lower-level House staffers are reporting nausea, headaches, bloody noses and itchiness after opening irradiated or 'over-baked' mail in recent weeks." The Hill continues, "House officials have ignored the complaints, according to the staffers who asked that their names not be used. They added that the long-term effects of handling irradiated mail are unknown." The Hill adds, "The staffers are fearful that approaching their bosses or making their symptoms public will result in dismissal." The Hill notes, "Instead, the affected staffers are sharing their complaints with colleagues on a group e-mail system of about 75 House legislative correspondents and assistants who handle mail." The Hill adds, "In two recent closed-door meetings held by House officials last Friday morning and Wednesday of the previous week, officials told approximately 30 concerned staffers that they would be creating a task force to look into the safety of working with irradiated mail."

The Hill (1/30, Rothstein) reports, "A legislative correspondent working in the Rayburn House Office Building says he feels like a 'guinea pig' for the government." The Hill continues, "And a staff assistant in one of the House Office buildings dons goggles, gloves and a mask to open the mail. Still, her eyes get irritated and her gloves turn yellow." The Hill adds, "They are both low-level House staffers. And they live in fear that speaking up could cost them their jobs. But they have come forward nonetheless -- in part because they know that as many as 25 fellow staffers have reported suffering from nausea, headaches, bloody noses and itchiness after having opened irradiated or 'over-baked' mail in recent weeks in the aftermath of the anthrax attacks." The Hill notes, "There is no medical evidence that such treated mail can cause ill effects, Capitol Hill doctors are quick to point out. On the other hand, there are already enough sick staffers who've handled the mail there to raise concerns."

The Washington Times (1/30, Taylor) reports, "U.S. Postal Service officials and representatives from one of the companies hired to irradiate government mail in the wake of the anthrax attacks say there is no evidence that the process creates a health risk." The Times adds, "Some congressional staffers in recent days have reported headaches and irritated eyes and skin after handling mail." The Times notes, "The Postal Service and representatives from Titan Scan Technologies yesterday told The Washington Times that there has been 'no evidence' that the irradiation process poses any health risk." The Times continues, "Wil Williams, a spokesman for Titan Scan Technologies, said the mail is simply going through the same sterlization process that medical supplies go through before being packaged and sent to hospitals. 'When medical people open up cartons of supplies that have been irradiated, they don't get sick,' he said. 'After a decade of using this process worldwide, all of a sudden somebody [in Washington] is saying there are health consequences.'"

Irradiating Mail Delays Delivery, Increases Cost.
The Washington Post (1/30, A1, Twomey) in a front page story reports, "Baked at 175 degrees, the government's mail must be set out to breathe these days, like an opened bottle of wine. So the letters rest for hours in circus-like tents in the parking lot of the shuttered Brentwood postal facility, purging themselves of gases that have accumulated during sanitization." The Post continues, "When finally delivered to the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and the federal departments, the irradiated missives are in altered states. In color: They can seem faded, as if left in the sun or dispatched in Lincoln's time. In texture: They are drier - 'crispy,' as some recipients put it. Some detect an odor as well, as if something has burned, although the U.S. Postal Service sprays the letters with something 'like Febreze for mail,' one official said." The Post adds, "Millions of potentially fatal anthrax spores mailed in everyday envelopes to the Senate last fall have forced the Postal Service to erect a fire wall for the federal government's executive, legislative and judicial branches. It is an up-from-nothing system of culling, wrapping, boxing, long-distance trucking and parking-lot venting whose coup de grace is, literally, electron death rays that cook the mail, and any living organism in it." The Post notes, "The process reflects how costly bioterror-by-mail has been in lives, time and dollars, and how extensive the response. Congress has awarded the Postal Service $500 million to cleanse its facilities of anthrax spores and plan the detection and removal of future bio-threats, not just to the government's mail but to everyone's. Irradiating all mail is possible, although no plan has been approved."