Leaking Package Forces Quarantine at B’nai B’rith

More than 100 workers were quarantined for more than eight hours Thursday after a package containing a leaking, foul-smelling petri dish was discovered in the mail room of the international headquarters of B’nai B’rith.

After laboratory tests allayed initial fears that the suspicious substance might be a deadly toxin, the workers, along with several children, were told they could go home.

The episode snarled traffic as police cordoned off several blocks around the office building, an area that includes the Australian Embassy and a hotel.

“It is not life-threatening, but we still have not determined what it is,” said Thomas Pickard, head of the FBI Washington field office.

In a television interview after the package was found, District of Columbia Police Chief Larry Soulsby said, “We found some biological material and a note that was left with the package.”

“An 8-by-10 envelope was found in our mail room with red liquid coming out of it,” B’nai B’rith spokeswoman Robin Schwartz-Kreger said by phone from inside the building. She said it was accompanied by a “threatening” letter.

Authorities said the petri dish had the word “anthrachs” on it--an apparent misspelling of anthrax, a deadly bacterial disease.

The dish also bore the word “yersinia,” which is the bacterium that causes bubonic plague. But tests turned up no evidence of a serious contaminant. Other tests were continuing.

At least one man complaining of dizziness was taken to George Washington University Hospital.

Fourteen others, including a dozen emergency personnel, were hosed down at the site with a water and chlorine solution to decontaminate them, authorities said.

A B’nai B’rith employee, Dan Joseph, said those who had been quarantined in the building included as many as five children, ages 5 to 13, who had accompanied their parents on “Take Our Daughters to Work Day.”

Hazardous-materials teams in blue and white protective suits and gas masks removed the package, and an FBI spokeswoman said Bethesda Naval Research Center tested it.

Federal law enforcement officials said the petri dish was accompanied by a two-page, typed letter. It was hard to tell whether the signature was of one person or a group, but it was not a name known to the FBI, they said.

One agent said the letter claimed responsibility for the petri dish and contained “a lot of scribbling,” not all of which was coherent.