91 People Held After Anthrax Scare
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ninety-one people were held for almost eight hours as a
health precaution after an anonymous threat claimed anthrax had been released
into the air ducts of a federal building.
The people were given antibiotics and special suits to wear over their clothes
Friday before preliminary tests showed none of them had been infected with the
potentially deadly bacterium.
Authorities held the people, most of them U.S. Bankruptcy Court staff members,
as firefighters and FBI investigators tested the ventilation system for
anthrax spores. Those tests also came up empty, said Jonathan Fielding,
spokesman for the Los Angeles County Health Department.
The FBI would not release details of how the threat was delivered.
Preliminary symptoms of the infection typically set in within a few hours to
exposure. Anthrax spores take three to five days to incubate inside the body
and can cause death if untreated.
Letters threatening anthrax releases have been sent around the country in
recent months, including threats to abortion clinics in four Midwestern states
about two months ago.
