Anthrax scare reaches Princeton University campus

HazMat Task Force responded after a student reported a "sugar-like substance" on a Frist keyboard.

By: David Campbell
   The first floor of the Frist Campus Center at Princeton University was closed for three hours Monday night after a white powder was found on a keyboard.
   University spokeswoman Marilyn Marks said Thursday that test results were still pending.
   The McCosh Health Center at the university is on alert for flu-like symptoms, which are exhibited by people infected with inhalation anthrax, the university announced Thursday.
   Capt. John Barone of the Trenton Fire Department’s HazMat Task Force said the task force responded Monday night after a male student reported a "sugar-like substance" on a Frist keyboard.
   Capt. Barone said a fireman in a yellow "space suit" collected the keyboard and mouse, decontaminated the area and took swab tests of the area.
   He said the Frist incident was his HazMat unit’s third "possible anthrax" call that night.
   "We have to act on the side of safety," he said.
   The substance was sent to the state laboratory for testing, said Princeton Borough police.
   The university said the area of Frist was reopened around 11 p.m. Monday.
   Ms. Marks said there have been other reports of suspicious agents this week, but all have proved benign.
   "People are anxious," she said. "But we appreciate that everybody is being alert.
   The McCosh Health Center will soon have available quick-detection flu kits that can rule out the likelihood of influenza, the university announced.
   The university said there is no evidence of anthrax on campus, but indicated it is taking appropriate precautions.
   Meanwhile, a suspicious package mailed to the Valley Road building in Princeton Township has tested negative for anthrax, Ted Cashel, township fire official and emergency management coordinator, said Wednesday.
   Of the several false alarms responded to recently, the package was the only one sent to the state lab for testing, he said.
   As of Wednesday, the state laboratory had received more than 919 suspicious envelopes and packages collected by law enforcement agencies statewide, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
   Testing on 520 of those have proven negative for anthrax. An additional 305 have tested negative in preliminary tests, the state said.
   The fate of the U.S. Postal Service mailbox that was removed Oct. 18 from the township’s Redding Circle development remained a mystery Thursday.
   Postal Service spokesman Jim Stanley said Thursday he was unaware of the incident. Several calls to other Postal Service spokespersons went unanswered this week.
   Residents said something suspicious was found in the mailbox, and said two men with masks and gloves wrapped it in yellow tape, then covered it with a black trash bag.
   Mr. Cashel had confirmed earlier that the mailbox was removed, and said he did not believe it was anthrax-related. A township employee in Mayor Phyllis Marchand’s office said no one at the Valley Road Building knew anything more about the missing box.
   The Postal Service said Tuesday it encouraged all postal workers at the Route 130 mail-processing center in Hamilton and the West Trenton post office to seek immediate medical evaluation and a 10-day regimen of antibiotics through Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
   Employees from area businesses who visited the facilities’ workroom floors between Sept. 18 and Oct. 19 also should seek testing and antibiotics as a preventative measure, the Postal Service said.
   To date, one postal worker from the Hamilton facility is suspected to have inhalation anthrax. Two workers have skin anthrax, one from the Trenton facility, the other from the West Trenton post office.
   Another employee from the Trenton mail-processing facility is suspected to have contracted skin anthrax.