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back to Organic Consumers Assn. Stop Food Irradiation page Sterilized mail delivered from post office where anthrax letters were processed This story says: "Postal officials said the irradiated mail being sent from the Hamilton facility could be discolored and wrinkled with a faint, bleach-like odor. The radiation may also have harmed or ruined products including food, medicine, film, contact lenses and electronics." Stay tuned. By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press HAMILTON, N.J. (December 1, 2001) - Mail sterilized by radiation was delivered Saturday from a post office that has been closed for more than a month after investigators discovered that letters tainted with anthrax had passed through it. Postal service spokesman Carl Walton said about 1,000 pieces of mail were being sent out Saturday. About 800,000 letters, catalogs and packages were detained in the Hamilton facility after authorities found that at least four contaminated letters had been processed there. Three-quarters of that mail still has to be sanitized at a plant originally designed to sterilize medical equipment and industrial devices. The irradiated letters were sealed in plastic bags imprinted with an explanation of the sanitation process. The label advised postal customers to contact police if they find suspicious substances in their mail. Authorities said Friday that traces of anthrax were found on a letter in Connecticut that moved through the facility on Oct. 9, the same day as anthrax-laden letters sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy in Washington. Connecticut Gov. John Rowland said the discovery on a letter to Seymour, Conn., could indicate that 94-year-old Ottilie Lundgren, who lived about three miles away in Oxford, was also exposed by mail. Lundgren's case remained under investigation, as did the mysterious anthrax death of a New York City woman. Postal officials said the irradiated mail being sent from the Hamilton facility could be discolored and wrinkled with a faint, bleach-like odor. The radiation may also have harmed or ruined products including food, medicine, film, contact lenses and electronics. Some postal customers were wary of the bagged mail. Hamilton resident Nick Commiso said he wouldn't open it. "I don't trust anybody now," he said. "Not until they catch somebody who did it." Others said they would open a package - but only after taking some precautions. "I think it's safe," said Cevilla Callier of Trenton, who expects to receive some bagged mail. "I'm still going to do what I've been doing, though. I'll open it outside and I won't put it on my kitchen table, like I used to," she said.

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