Officials: Wash after handling mail

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Postmaster General John Potter said Wednesday he can’t guarantee the safety of the mail, and he and other postal officials began suggesting Americans wash their hands after handling letters.

Improved safety gloves and masks are being sent to mail workers as the U.S. Postal Service awaits next week’s delivery of its first high-technology equipment to sanitize mail.

Worries have mounted about mail safety because of anthrax cases in Florida, New York, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey, at least some of them stemming from mailed items.

Deborah Willhite, a senior vice president of the Postal Service, said the agency is simply urging people to use common sense.

"We believe that people should wash their hands in soap and water after they handle their mail every day, just to make sure that if anything is on the envelope, that they’re clean," she said in an interview.

"We have no reason to believe that there would be anything on them, but what’s the problem with clean hands?"

Later, Willhite urged organizations that send bulk mail through a contaminated Washington post office to have their employees tested for anthrax.

The tests have focused on postal workers so far, but she said that should be extended by up to 200 more people, including employees of operations like the International Monetary Fund and Humane Society of the United States, who collect large volumes of mail at the center.

Potter stressed the agency has delivered more than 20 billion pieces of mail since Sept. 11, and that only a handful of anthrax cases have been reported. However, he admitted that he could not guarantee the safety of all mail.

The post office is scrambling to tighten its health and safety systems after two workers died of anthrax and others became ill.

The Postal Service is at war, Potter has said, insisting that the agency will continue to deliver the mail.