Irradiated Mail A Possible Health Risk

Congressional employees were still reporting health problems such as headaches and nausea months after the Postal Service began irradiating all mail following the anthrax scare, according to a report released Tuesday.

The findings, said Gary Green, general counsel of the congressional Office of Compliance, are "troublesome for those who would like to close the book on the question of irradiated mail."

The office, which oversees health and labor conditions for congressional workers, also said it had found low levels of irritant chemical byproducts caused by irradiation in House and Senate mail rooms.

"While we do not believe these chemical irritants are life-threatening, we believe further study is essential to determine the effects of extended exposure to irradiated mail," said the report. In most cases the symptoms clear up when the employee leaves the work environment, Green said.

He said they are urging employees with persistent symptoms to see a doctor and are asking Congress to approve a study to trace the existence of chemical byproducts throughout the mail distribution system.

The report was prepared at the request of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

"It is cause for concern, and obviously the reason I asked for the investigation was that I had some concern as well, based upon ad hoc reports that I was getting," Grassley told CBS Radio News.

The report recommended precautionary steps such as limiting the time employees spend handling mail.

Mail delivery to the Capitol and congressional office buildings was suspended shortly after an anthrax-tainted letter was found in the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, S.D., and traces turned up in some 15 other offices.

Since January, when deliveries were resumed, all mail bound for Congress and federal agencies is first irradiated at postal facilities outside of Washington.

But almost immediately, postal workers and mail handlers at federal and congressional offices began complaining about multiple symptoms, including headaches, nausea and rashes, that appeared linked to exposure to irradiated mail.

"There's no doubt that the report raises questions about the safety of irradiation," Grassley said. "I would not condemn people for going to it, but I would surely expect them now, since this report is out, to be a little more cautious in the use of it, if they use it at all."

The general counsel said the office received 215 paper responses in February and March from congressional staff saying they or others in their office were experiencing symptoms. Half said they got headaches while handling mail, one-third complained of itching skin, 23 percent had burning and red eyes and 21 percent nausea.

The office contacted 148 of these people by phone in the March-April period, and of these, 72 percent said they still were experiencing symptoms.

In another telephone follow-up in May, 55 percent of 168 people reported continuing ill health, although of these 61 percent said the symptoms were better.

Grassley said health effects were unknown when large-scale irradiation began. In retrospect, he said, the office of the Senate sergeant at arms and the Legislative Mail Task Force "may have been too quick to conclude irradiated mail was harmless, and they may not have taken employees' health concerns seriously enough."

Now, he expects them to take the appropriate steps.

The report's authors cautioned the study was not scientifically valid because only those with health problems responded, and they had not established any definitive cause, or causes, of the symptoms.

But "we believe these symptoms are not insignificant, both in terms of the number of complaints and in the effect on employee health and work performance," they said.

It noted the Postal Service believed there had been a problem with some "overdoses" of irradiation, a common practice in disinfecting food and medical devices, at the beginning of the process, but the problem had been corrected.