Package Delivery Security Boosted

The U.S. Postal Service and package delivery companies--likely conduits in any effort to transport anthrax or another toxin to unwitting victims--said Friday that they are on heightened alert and taking extra precautions to identify suspicious parcels.

“We have all sorts of security measures in place,” which include inspections and “training our employees to be on the lookout for suspicious packages,” said Traci Barnett, a spokeswoman for FedEx Corp., an overnight-delivery firm that moves about 5 million parcels a day.

But she declined to elaborate on those inspections or other measures, as did the other delivery concerns.

A spokesman for United Parcel Service Inc., Norman Black, said the parcel-delivery giant “will never discuss any item of security. We learned long ago that it’s always counterproductive and undermines what you’re trying to do.”

Scrutiny of package delivery intensified Friday after the discovery that an employee of “NBC Nightly News” in New York had been infected with anthrax. U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said a letter “may have transmitted the anthrax,” and FBI officials in New York said that letter and a suspicious letter found at the New York Times that was being tested had postmarks from St. Petersburg, Fla., but no return addresses.

If the mail was used, it would be the first documented case of anthrax being transmitted via the mail system, the postal service said. The agency moves about 208 billion pieces of mail a year, and until Friday, it said, it had “not seen any real incidents, including anthrax--only threats or hoaxes.”

Postal service spokesman David Mazer said there were 178 anthrax threats involving mail last year and more than 60 this year, and as of Friday afternoon “none, repeat zero, have been confirmed as having occurred through the mail.”

Security analysts noted that there are differences between trying to move harmful biological or chemical elements through the mail, which can be largely anonymous, and through a commercial service such as FedEx or UPS.

To use a commercial service, the sender must fill out forms requiring not only the recipient’s name and address but also the sender’s name, address and other personal information. UPS also asks about the package’s contents.

As the package is being shipped, its whereabouts are electronically tracked, leaving a distinct trail. Also, if the person receiving the parcel has any suspicions, he or she can call FedEx or UPS--or look at the companies’ Web sites--to find out who sent the package before ever touching it.

The stocks of both companies sank after the new anthrax reports. On the New York Stock Exchange, UPS fell $1.84 to close at $50.95, and FedEx lost $1.61 to close at $38.09.