CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A rapidly proliferating national anthrax alert rippled across NASAs Kennedy Space Center Tuesday as mailrooms in five buildings were evacuated after employees discovered white powder and parcels laced with suspicious substances.
NASA officials said that preliminary analysis showed that none of the substances appeared to be hazardous, but at least some of the packages and the trousers of a worker were taken to a state laboratory in Jacksonville, Fla., by two FBI agents and a KSC surgeon.
An undisclosed number of mail handlers and other workers, however, were given medical examinations.
The lab results, meanwhile, are due back Wednesday.
"The substances do not appear to be harmful, but as a precaution, a thorough analysis is being conducted," said KSC spokesman Joel Wells. "NASA is taking the necessary steps to protect its mail handlers and other employees."
The rash of mailroom discoveries came during a week in which news of anthrax exposures were uncovered in NBC and ABC network news offices in New York as well as the office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
It also followed a day center-wide training sessions on how to recognize and handle suspicious pieces of mail and packages here at the homeport of the nations $8 billion space shuttle fleet. Mail handlers also were trained on specific procedures for notifying authorities in the event that suspicious packages were discovered.
That training could have led to the wave of reports here at KSC, officials said.
"A heightened awareness could lead to a greater number of reports," Wells said.
The surge of KSC reports began about mid-morning Tuesday at a building in which parts of shuttle solid rocket boosters are assembled and then refurbished after flight.
An unidentified mail handler at the so-called Assembly and Refurbishment Facility noticed during the course of normal work that white powder was covering his or her trousers.
The mail handler dialed 911, reported the situation and KSC security responded along with a fire and rescue squad, a hazardous materials team and a bioenvironmental group from nearby Patrick Air Force Base.
The mailroom and adjacent rooms were evacuated. Inspections ensued, and the workers trousers were double-bagged for shipment to the state lab in Jacksonville.
The mailroom at the KSC headquarters building then was evacuated and inspected because pieces of mail the worker had handled had originally come from there.
Then, over the course of the day, reports came in from three other NASA buildings here, including the Space Station Processing Facility, where components for the International Space Station are readied for flight.
"Immediate steps were taken to isolate the materials and the areas where the workers had been," Wells said.
A substance on a piece of mail at ISS processing building was quickly determined to be "benign," NASA officials said, but then a yellow powder and a brown substance were discovered on parcels in the mailrooms of two office buildings in the Launch Complex 39 area here.
The various response teams went from building to building for inspections, the nature of which NASA officials would not disclose.
"We cannot discuss the exact nature of inspections or security measures," Wells said. "That could compromise safety and security."
The mailrooms in four of the five buildings had been fully inspected and reopened by the end of normal business. Assuming no evidence of anthrax or any other biological agent is found, the mailroom in the fifth building is expected to reopen by Wednesday morning.
NASA officials, meanwhile, praised the mailroom workers for rapidly reporting the suspicious packages and carrying out the emergency plan they had just been trained to execute.
"What we saw here was a very efficient implementation of a plan to protect KSC employees," Wells said. "Whether the substances are harmful or not, the plan was executed as laid out and the necessary precautions were taken."
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