GAO Criticizes USPS Delay on Anthrax Test

The U.S. Postal Service violated federal regulations and undermined management’s credibility when it failed to disclose anthrax test results promptly to workers at a contaminated Connecticut mail facility, the General Accounting Office charged in a report released yesterday.

The GAO said postal officials did not comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules in early 2002 when they did not fulfill a request for test results from union representatives at the Southern Connecticut Processing and Distribution Center in Wallingford.

Investigators tested the facility several times in late 2001 after letters laced with anthrax spores were mailed to two members of Congress and several media outlets. The letters caused 23 anthrax-related illnesses and five deaths.

Although initial results at the Wallingford facility were negative, later tests turned up dangerous levels of anthrax in a sample from a mail-sorting machine. The facility remained open. Workers were told only that “trace” amounts had been found and were advised to continue taking antibiotics. No workers became ill.

Officials did not release the results until September 2002, nine months after they first learned of the results.

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who asked the GAO to investigate, said, “It is difficult for me to fathom why postal workers were kept in the dark.” Postal officials said they would update their guidelines to ensure a swifter flow of information.

John Dirzius, president of the Greater Connecticut Area Local of the American Postal Workers Union, said he is skeptical because union officials aren’t involved in drafting the revisions.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company