The University has resumed delivery of outside mail from the United States Postal Service. Service was temporarily suspended last week after the discovery of a single spore of anthrax prompted the closure of the main Princeton post office in West Windsor.
University director of communications Lauren Robinson-Brown '85 said the University's mail normally flows through the now-closed facility.
"There's no reason to believe, unless there is a suspicious letter that meets the guidelines we have posted on the website, that any mail we receive has anthrax contamination," she said. "Any measure we take is precautionary in nature."
Causes for suspicion include oily stains on a package, misspellings on the envelope, a foreign postmark, excessive tape or string, strange odors coming from the package and lopsided or uneven package shape. The absence of a return address, alone, is not enough to qualify suspicion.
The U.S.P.S. has established temporary facilities and is using them to deliver mail that never circulated through the closed facility. Mail that arrived in bulk before Oct. 29, and has not yet been delivered, is being held pending further tests.
Subsequent tests have identified several more spores of anthrax inside the now-closed facility.
The University is putting its mail handling staff through a compulsory safety training program. The program is open to anyone who is interested, and will be offered again tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. in First 302.
Robinson-Brown added that members of the mail handling staff are not being tested for anthrax.
"The state hasn't changed their guidelines in terms of what they will respond to in providing testing of people, places or substances," she explained. "In terms of independent resources, resources are being taxed and so there's just no one available to do it."
The University has also chosen not to offer antibiotics to its mail handling staff.
"I have to emphasize, our health officials do not want people on antibiotics unless a high index of suspicion has been reached," she said. "If people are over-medicated, it will actually prevent health officials from responding with reasonable means. They're not going to, as a precaution, put people on prophylactic treatment."
Meanwhile, the FBI has continued work around and on campus. "Our focus has centered around New Jersey, and yes, the Trenton area," an FBI spokeswoman said. The University has repeatedly stated that it is not engaged in any biological research with anthrax.
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