More anthrax found in senate office

by Alan Fram
The Associated Press

     WASHINGTON - Trace amounts of anthrax were found in two more areas of the Senate office building where a letter containing the bacterium was opened, officials said Thursday.

     The discoveries brought to three the number of places in the Hart building where anthrax has been found outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. The letter was opened in Daschle's fifth- and sixth-floor suite on Oct. 15, leading to the testing of more than 6,000 people, the shutdown of all of Congress' office buildings for inspections and early adjournment last week by the House and Senate.

     Officials played down the new anthrax sites, detected as investigators continued scouring the nine-story building.

     Even so, the discoveries raised eyebrows among the already wary denizens of the Capitol complex, of whom 28 have tested positive for anthrax exposure.

     The two new sites where anthrax was found were a stairway between the building's eighth and ninth floors, and a ninth floor ventilation filter. Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols said the day the letter was opened, Daschle's staff was brought up that staircase to a conference room, where they were checked by doctors.

     One unsolved question is whether the anthrax in the ventilation system came from the Daschle aides or had traveled up the air shaft, Nichols said.

     The Hart building has been closed to lawmakers, aides and the public since Oct. 17, the day all of Congress' office buildings were closed as a precaution.