Like many other mailrooms across the country, Pomona’s mail centers are taking proactive measures to counter potential anthrax attacks like those recently witnessed in several cities across the country over the past two weeks.

Media outlets, businesses and politicians have recently received letters containing anthrax spores in several states, including California, Florida, New York, Nevada and the District of Columbia. In those cases, a total of four people have contracted some form of the anthrax disease, and at least forty others have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

In response to these events, Anne Johnson, the Director of Human Resources and Administrative Services at Pomona, sent an e-mail that was forwarded to all students.

According to the e-mail, "All mail personnel in the Mail Services office in Sumner Hall and in the Student Mail office in Smith Campus Center will be trained in handling incoming mail from the US Postal Services, especially unusual packages or parcels."

Neil Gerard, the Director of the Smith Campus Center said that a campus safety officer who is currently being trained in what to do in the event of a bio-terrorism attack would likely conduct the training. Most of the training will focus on teaching mailroom workers how to identify questionable objects and what to do if a questionable object is identified.

Also included in the e-mail was a copy of a Centers for Disease Control Health Advisory that warns about the potential dangers of anthrax. According to the advisory, "anthrax organisms can cause infection in the skin, gastrointestinal [digestive] system, or the lungs," but the "disease can be prevented after exposure to anthrax spores by early treatment with antibiotics."

If a letter or parcel is suspect, the CDC says that the letter should be isolated to the greatest extent possible, the person or people exposed to the letter should immediately wash their hands and any other areas exposed to the suspected anthrax, and the local police and campus security should be notified as soon as possible.

While the training will be conducted as a precaution, Gerard said that he doesn’t expect a problem. "Most of [the attacks] have been against media outlets," he said. "There’s no reason to believe that Pomona College would be targeted."

Employees who work in the Smith mailroom agreed. ‘"You try to evaluate what we handle and what has happened…and we don’t fit into that category," said LaVon Schwab, the Mail Room Manager.

Several students also work in the Smith mailroom, but according to Jason Swaim ’04, they aren’t that concerned. "I haven’t thought about it too much, but I don’t really worry about it that much," he said. "I just don’t think we’re high profile enough."

The training for mailroom workers is expected to take place as soon as the campus safety officer finishes training.