By David Ho, Associated Press, 11/10/01

WASHINGTON -- Trace amounts of anthrax were discovered in the offices of three more senators and another House member in congressional buildings where it had earlier been found.

The health threat was deemed minimal.

"We have always been concerned about mail that has been contaminated by other mail," Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician, said Saturday at a news conference outside the Capitol.

But he said the trace amounts found "are not a public health risk; they are not an inhalational risk; they are not a cutaneous risk."

Anthrax was found in several spots in the Hart Senate office building, where a letter containing anthrax was opened Oct. 15 in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Spores were found in the offices of Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho; Bob Graham, D-Fla.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

It was also found in the sixth floor offices of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., in the Longworth House office building. Cummings' office was already closed because it was adjacent to an office where anthrax had been discovered.

Craig said he was told about the contamination by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on Friday night.

"It came as shock to all of us," Craig said Saturday in an interview. "They're using the term 'cross-contamination' because of the slight amount that was found there. It might have been a stack in our office that was in same mail cart as the Daschle letter."

Craig said that while he has not been tested and is not taking antibiotics, those precautions have been offered to his staff and five or six of them are taking Cipro. He said that if anyone on his staff was going to get sick, they probably already would have shown symptoms.

Feinstein said "the medical risk is virtually zero." She said her staff has not reported any medical problems that can be associated with anthrax.

Feinstein spokesman, Jim Hock, said everyone in Feinstein's office has had nasal swab tests for exposure to anthrax, and the results so far have been negative.

Graham's spokesman, Paul Anderson, said a minute amount of anthrax was found in the area where the staff sorts mail. He said all of Graham's staff tested negative for anthrax exposure in the days after the Daschle letter was discovered.

The Daschle letter led to the shutdown of all six major House and Senate office buildings, as well as the House side of the Capitol, for testing that revealed evidence of the bacteria in several other locations in the complex.

Other spots in the Hart building where isolated spores were found -- a freight elevator and a staircase -- were cleaned last week with an anti-bacterial foam.

Senate leaders had hoped to decontaminate the building with chlorine dioxide gas and reopen it on Nov. 13. But experts questioned the effectiveness of that plan and expressed concerns about whether the gas would work uniformly in the nine-story building.

It is now uncertain when all 50 senators who work there -- half the Senate -- can reoccupy their offices.