University officials announced Nov. 21 that the powdery substance found in a catalog mailed to Lewis Thomas Lab tested negative for anthrax.
Though the University employed an independent environmental safety team to analyze the suspicious substance to avoid the time delay associated with the state system, the state lab reported the results first. The independent team announced its results a day later.
"We went with the independent lab because all the state labs seemed to be pretty taxed," said Lauren Robinson-Brown '85, the University's communications director.
"Another reason we brought in the independent team in this particular situation was because the package did not meet the criteria laid out by the state," she said. "So we thought we would get quicker results."
The catalog did not meet state criteria because it was addressed to an individual and had a return address for the company, therefore passing through the federal and University mail handlers, Robinson-Brown said.
The catalog was discovered by two people on Nov. 16. Though only one of them opened the package, both were offered antibiotics.
"Though they were offered antibiotics, I don't believe that any of them actually took them," Robinson-Brown said. "The case with the Wilson School building established our policy and we offered the people involved antibiotics . . . So in this case, the steps taken were out of precaution because we didn't know.
"If any of them did take the antibiotics, I am sure they stopped the dosage immediately upon hearing, because the medication can have some pretty severe side effects," she added.
This was the third anthrax scare on campus in which a testing team has been called into a University building to analyze a suspicious substance or letter. All three have tested negative for anthrax.
"All we can do is encourage people to report anything that looks suspicious, especially concerning mail," Robinson-Brown said. "Mail continues to be the prime concern of local, state and federal authorities."
Though anthrax was not found in past incidents on campus, Robinson-Brown reminded community members to be aware of the risk.
"Even though the number of scares have all been negative, community members must remain diligent," she said.
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