Anthrax Testing at Fla. Post Offices
MIAMI (AP) - A second round of tests has confirmed the presence of anthrax in two more postal buildings that handled mail for the supermarket tabloid company where a worker died of anthrax, state health officials said Friday.
The facilities in Boca Raton and Lake Worth, 20 miles away, were cleaned overnight and reopened Friday. No employees were considered to be at risk, Postal Service spokesman Joseph Breckenridge said.
Preliminary tests Thursday showed a small amount of anthrax at a Boca Raton facility that sorted American Media Inc. mail and a Lake Worth post office that handled mail sent to the company's old Lantana address, health officials said.
They said Friday that more conclusive tests on the samples confirmed the presence of the germ.
Earlier this month, photo editor Robert Stevens of The Sun, an American Media tabloid, died of inhaled anthrax. A mailroom employee, Ernesto Blanco, 73, is infected with the disease and a co-worker has tested positive for exposure. About 400 other workers or visitors to the building are awaiting blood test results.
Blanco remains hospitalized at a Miami hospital but was moved out of critical care to a private room Thursday, stepdaughter Maria Orth said. He had surgery this week to put tubes in his lungs to help him breathe.
``He's looking a lot better,'' Orth said.
On Thursday, The National Enquirer, another American Media tabloid, came out with a ``world exclusive'' - ``Bio-terrorism: The Florida anthrax attack on Enquirer headquarters.'' It came with a front-page disclaimer: ``This paper not printed in the state of Florida.''
The disclaimer was meant to allay readers' fears that the anthrax spores found in the company's offices could somehow have made their way onto newsstand copies.
``There was concern expressed ... and AMI has gone out of its way to make sure there's no concern,'' said Gerald McKelvey, a company spokesman.
Four of the six tabloids that came out Thursday had stories on anthrax.
The Enquirer story touts Stevens, 63, as ``The man who saved America,'' since his death Oct. 5 alerted authorities to the anthrax danger. And it labeled its coverage as ``From the people who lived through the nightmare. Their stories can save your life.''
The Star interview with his widow, Maureen Stevens, included photos of Stevens cooking in his Lantana home, dancing with his daughter and dressing up as a clown on Halloween. The front page headline read: ``MY HERO: Anthrax victim's widow: Her moving story. `Our last days together were filled with love.'''
The Globe had a two-column story written by Joe Mullins, a close friend of Stevens, which chronicled a fishing trip they had taken. The Sun ran only a short, one column tribute to its former employee.
Two tabloids - the National Examiner and Weekly World News - stayed away from the anthrax story.
The typically sensational Weekly World News stayed true to form with this headline: ``Bigfoot kept lumberjack as love slave.''
Originally published October 19, 2001.
