NYC-WTC_000230727

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

daily NEW'S, Wednesd ay, October 24,2001

Post Office offers Cipro to worried mail workers By JOE WIlilAMS “Something should be done to and DAVE GOLOINER minimize that kind of expo­ DAIO NEWS STAFF WRITERS sure,” said Louie Nikolaidis, a Nervous New York postal lawyer for the union. workers were given the option Checking death records yesterday of taking the antibiot­ With anthrax fears building ic Cipro if they feared they had and more scares occurring daily. been exposed to anthrax. New Jersey health officials took ' With tests still pending on the startling step of instructing I Manhattan postal facilities that coroners to double-check recent handled anthrax-laced mail, death reports for possible linfe , Post Office officials said they to the lethal bacteria. I would provide a five-day supply Andrew Tucker, a spokesman I of the drug to any employee for the city Health Department. who wanted it. said he did hot know whether But postal union leaders con­ city investigators would cHeCt tinued to demand much broader the death rolls for possible an­ action, including shutting down thrax links. , affected mail facilities and step­ Postal union officials said they ping up emergency plans to deal did not know of any suspicious with any additional outbreaks. deaths of New York mail work­ “We don’t think the Postal Ser­ ers in recent weeks. ' a ' 'll vice is doing everything they Around the city, there were can do to help us,” said William several more anthrax scares yes^ Smith, president of the terday, including a second,at 10,000-member New York The New York Times and. one Metro Area Postal Union. that forced the evacuation of the Postal officials held a heated British Consulate on Third Ave. Officials calmly left the consu­ two-hour meeting yesterday with union leaders, who are late office, which was closed for the day. Other companies in the mulling legal options to tempo­ building near E. 50th St. stayed rarily shut facilities they believe open. could be dangerous. “They don't tell you any­ Anthrax tests have been per­ thing," said Greg Stone, 44, a formed at the Morgan postal fa­ law nrm researcher in the build­ cility on Ninth Ave. at 30th St., ing. “That’s what annoys me one of the city's biggest mail de­ and scares me.” pots, and other stations where At The Times, a suspicious contaminated mail was handled. powder was found in a letter Results will be available later in postmarked Glasgow, Scotland, the week. Smith said. that was opened in a mailroom New York employees want bet­ about 8:30 a.m. Two employees ter emergency planning to head in the room were tested for an­ off an anthrax crisis like the one thrax, but results will not be. that has killed two postal work­ available for several days. The ers and sickened at least two oth­ Times closed the mailroom and ers in Washington. suspended mail delivery.

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NYC-WTC_000230727