Ga. Powder Test Result: No Anthrax

White powder in a bag found at the U.S. Army Reserve Command headquarters building at Ft. McPherson was not anthrax, an Army spokesman said.

Field tests shortly after the bag was found Friday afternoon had indicated anthrax, but more conclusive tests Saturday proved anthrax was not present, Col. Guy Shields said at a news conference.

Shields said the CDC wasn’t able to detect what the substance was because the sample was too small.

Initial field tests “have a lot of false positives,” CDC spokesman Lisa Swenarski said.

The five civilian employees who found the package and two firefighters who responded were showered down because of possible contamination, and the building was locked down with about 200 people inside for about five hours Friday. None of the people involved was given medication for anthrax, Col. Guy Shields said Saturday.

It wasn’t immediately clear where the package was found. Shields would only say that the civilians who found it about 4 p.m. were not mail room employees.

About 1,000 people work in the building. Joe Handley, a spokesman for the Army Reserve Command, said most of the military personnel have been inoculated with the anthrax vaccine, but not the civilians.

FBI agents were investigating.

The Reserve Command oversees all Army Reserve units in the contiguous United States except for psychological operations and civil affairs units. As part of normal security for the building, everyone has an identification badge and anyone who does not work there must be escorted, Shields said.

“It is a secure building,” he said. “We’re taking a look at that.”

Five people died after anthrax-laced letters were mailed to journalists, politicians and government offices in Florida, New York and Washington last fall. Since then, the military has tightened its mail screening procedures nationwide. The last victim was a Connecticut retiree who died Nov. 21.