Anthrax mistakenly sent to labs in N.J. and Delaware

TRENTON, N.J. (WPVI) -- A major mistake by the Pentagon may have exposed dozens of lab workers to live anthrax.

The deadly agent was accidentally sent from a military facility in Utah to a U.S. air base in South Korea and 18 labs in nine states.

Two of those states being New Jersey and Delaware.

New Jersey's Health Department will not identify the private lab where the anthrax samples arrived via FedEx. But just as they did during the anthrax scare in the Trenton area in 2001, hazmat teams responded.

The sample was retrieved and sent to the Centers for Disease Control for analysis to see if it contains live anthrax. Environmental samples taken at the unnamed site are being examined by the state.

Joyce Decker of Newtown, Pennsylvania says, "Well I think they should have better control and a little bit more protection, especially if people have to work with this. If that were my job I'd be a little nervous."

Lawrenceville resident Jackie Johnson tells us, "That's scary. I mean I don't know how to react because it ain't happened to me."

The Department of Defense says the anthrax samples were sent out as part of a project to develop field-based tests for biological threats.

The samples were irradiated to kill the anthrax bacteria, but the process failed to kill it all.

A lab in Maryland detected live anthrax last Friday, triggering a response at labs around the country that also received the samples.

So far no one has shown any signs of sickness.

Amy Taklif of Levittown, Pa. says, "I kind of feel like these things probably happen a lot more often than we think they do. I kind of always assume things like this do happen."

Trenton Health Director Jim Brownlee is a retired assistant commissioner with the New Jersey State Health Department. He helped to coordinate the response when anthrax was found in the Hamilton Post Office in 2001.

He explains, "We didn't know a lot about anthrax at that time, in terms of the whole exposure scenario."

This time around, he says the only people who should have any concern are those who handled the samples.

"People that were doing shipping, people that were in the lab - those are the people we need to be concerned about. For the general public, not at all," Brownlee said.

Delaware officials said they worked with the lab to inspect and decontaminate it.

New Jersey health officials are emphasizing that there is no risk to the public. As a precaution, the CDC is recommending that anyone who may have been exposed should be taking antibiotics.