Irradiated Mail Linked To Health Ills
Report not conclusive but suggests precautions

July 2, 2002

WASHINGTON, —  A substantial number of congressional employees may have experienced long-term health problems linked to the handling of irradiated mail, including headaches, burning eyes and nausea, says a report being made public Tuesday.
   
The report stressed it surveyed only those who elected to respond and thus the results were not a scientifically valid sampling. But it said scientists who analyzed air samples from House and Senate mail rooms found low levels of irritant chemical byproducts caused by irradiation of the mail.

 “WE BELIEVE these symptoms are not insignificant, both in terms of the number of complaints and in the effect on employee health and work performance,” the general counsel of the Office of Compliance said in the report.

 The congressional office cautioned that the study had not established a definitive cause of the broad range of symptoms reported, and it did not have enough information to judge whether there is a serious health risk. It recommended further studies and precautionary steps such as limiting the time employees spend handling mail.

 In January, after a three-month suspension of deliveries following the detection of anthrax spores in 16 congressional offices, the U.S. Postal Service began treating all mail addressed to Congress and federal agencies with large doses of irradiation.
 
EMPLOYEE EXPOSURE

 Shortly after the resumption of deliveries, congressional offices and postal offices began reporting health problems among workers exposed to the irradiated mail.

 The report said 215 congressional employees responded to a written survey in February and March that they or others in their office had health problems. Of 148 contacted by phone in March and April, 72 percent said they were still experiencing ill health.

 Among all those responding, half said they got headaches when handling mail, 32 percent said they had itching skin, 23 percent burning and red eyes and 21 percent nausea.

 Of 168 people who participated in a follow-up survey in May, 55 percent said they were still experiencing symptoms. However, 61 percent of those still experiencing systems said they were getting better.

 Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who requested the investigation, said irradiating mail “was and is a big experiment.” In light of the report, he said, the office of “the Senate sergeant at arms and its Legislative Mail Task Force may have been too quick to conclude irradiated mail was harmless, and they may not have taken employees’ health concerns seriously enough.”
 
NOT SCIENTIFICALLY VALID

 The report stressed it surveyed only those who elected to respond and thus the results were not a scientifically valid sampling. But it said scientists who analyzed air samples from House and Senate mail rooms found low levels of irritant chemical byproducts caused by irradiation of the mail.

 The report speculated that the byproducts probably emanated from the cellulose contents of the paper mail which is broken down in the irradiation process.

 It noted that the Postal Service believed there was a problem with some “overdoses” of irradiation, a common practice in disinfecting food and medical devices, at the beginning of the process, but that problem was corrected. Health problems were also reported at post offices handling irradiated mail.

 Mail deliveries to the Capitol were halted after an anthrax-tainted letter was found in the Senate office building containing the office of Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Mail heading for federal offices in Washington is now sanitized with radiation at postal facilities outside the capital.
 
http://www.msnbc.com/news/774945.asp