February 3, 2004
Photo: A Capitol Police officer stands outside closed entrance to the Dirksen Senate Office building on Capitol Hill Tuesday Feb. 3, 2004. Three Senate office buildings were closed after a suspicious white powder, apparently delivered through the mail system, was found in the Senate majority leader's office. Officials said several preliminary tests, but not all of them, were positive for ricin, a deadly poison. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The three Senate office buildings were closed Tuesday after the discovery of what tests have identified as the deadly toxin ricin, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced.
The substance was found about 3 p.m. Monday in a mailroom on the south side of fourth floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. That mailroom serves Frist's office. Ricin is derived from castor beans.
"All air sampling and all environmental studies today are negative with the exception of what was found in that single office at that site," Frist said Tuesday. "The powder was ultimately determined to be ricin."
Although the Senate convened Tuesday in its chamber in the Capitol, the nearby Dirksen, Hart and Russell Senate office buildings were closed based on "procedures that are quite thorough and comprehensive," Frist said.
"The real purpose of [the closings] is so the mail will be addressed in an appropriate way in those buildings," Frist said.
Senate committees canceled scheduled hearings Tuesday, but the full chamber convened at 9:45 a.m. ET and planned to debate a highway funding bill.
Federal authorities said Tuesday they have found no indication of international terrorism in the discovery.
"This is a criminal investigation that will be under way," said Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
Of eight tests conducted Monday, six were positive for the ricin. A ninth and final test is due Tuesday morning.
Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said the 16 people exposed were decontaminated late Monday as a precautionary measure.
"Most importantly, nobody has been hurt," Frist said.
Gainer said the envelope or package the powder came from has not been identified.
Ricin was found in a letter in October at a postal handling facility in Greenville, South Carolina, and the FBI has offered a $100,000 reward in that case. The typewritten letter was addressed to the Department of Transportation and demanded that changes in truckers' sleep/work schedules not be implemented.
There is no known antidote to ricin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One milligram of ricin, a dose the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult.
Police surround the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where a substance that tested positive for ricin was found.
In 2001, the Dirksen Senate Office Building was closed because of the deadly mailings of anthrax-laced letters that killed five people nationwide. Its offices were closed for days while authorities cleaned its mailroom, which had received one of the letters. The case has not been solved.
House mail suspended
Mail delivery to the House of Representatives awas suspended Tuesday, according to a memo from the House leadership. In addition, security forces are conducting increased surveillance at the Pentagon in response to the possible ricin scare, a spokesman said.
The House intends to meet on schedule Tuesday afternoon, according to a memo from House leadership distributed to arriving staff. House offices will be open, but mail deliveries have been suspended and Capitol Police are retrieving mail already delivered as a safeguard, the memo said.
Representatives and staffers were also directed not to touch any mail or trash cans, which were not emptied Monday night.
Suspicious letter in Connecticut
Connecticut and federal authorities said they are investigating a suspicious letter laced with white powder discovered at a postal facility Tuesday morning in Wallingford. The letter was addressed to the Republican National Committee, a postal inspector said.
Federal authorities said they expect test results Tuesday afternoon.
A postal worker at the Wallingford postal distribution center reported the discovery just before 1 a.m. ET to his supervisor, who contacted police, said Lt. Glen King of the Wallingford Police Department.
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and State Police rushed to the scene with a hazardous materials team, isolated the area where the letter was found and took it to the state laboratory in Hartford for testing, King said.
"No one was taken to hospital, the facility was not evacuated and remains open though we did relocate workers from the area where the letter was discovered to other parts of the building," King said.
Kevin McDonough, assistant postal inspector of the Boston, Massachusetts, division of the U.S. Postal Service, said the letter was a business reply envelope, typically used in fund raising, addressed to the Republican National Committee.
CNN's Ted Barrett, Barbara Starr and Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/02/03/senate.hazardous/index.html