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LL INFORMATION CONTAINED HEFEIN IS UNCLASSIFIED DATE Lé-le-2000 BY 60324 uc bawfrs/njs | am a Microbiologist in the USAMRIID Division of Bacteriology. Last fall, | became concerned that the fine powder of the Daschle letter as well as other potential anthrax letters and samples might b6 not be adequately contained with the practices that were being used here in the Institute. | also bY was concerned that contaminati i inati i containment suite ifi y decisions to perform surveillance cultures and the results of those cultures are accurately described in the attached document entitled “ExSum -18 APR 02, Bruce Ivins.” The dates for the cultures taken in April are the 15'" and 16", as indicated by my corrections. Also, in paragraph 2 of that document, “December of 2002” should read “December of 2001”. In response to direct questions, | have the following answers: Q. How was the Daschle leit 2 A. | worked on this letter with was also prespatinne lanl ven | b3 was working with the powder from this letter. | received the letter from in room b6 ee (7 had already been used in the area. It was contained in 2 or 3 bic ziplocks. | carried it to the passbox in From the passbox, | took it to the hood in be opened it, and scraped some of the powder from the envelope and letter into a pre-weighed buF Wheaton vial. | was surprised at how fine the powder was. It floated around inside the hood like propylene tube and bleached that tube. | then sent the vial out through the passbox into the lab f jahing. | showered out of B3, went to the B3 passbox, retrieved the vial and tube, and went to lab. At the balance, | removed the vial from the tube and weighed the vial. After weighing, | put the vial back in the polypropylene tube, returned to B-3, put it through the passbox and, once inside B3, took it to the hood inf | again. There, | added water to the powder and did serial dilutions for plate counts. After that, the vial stayed in the lab. | took the letter in the ziplocks, bleached the outside of the ziplocks, and returned the letter in the ziplocks out through the passbox. It was returned to but | do not remember if | returned it or someone else did. . “i in the sunlight. After removing the powder, | wiped off the vial with bleach, put the vial in a Later, | also received vials of powder from the New York Post and Leahy specimens. The powders were already contained in tubes, and the contents had already been weighed. They came in the same way, through thel__]passbox. 1 also received some other powdered sample fro that came in through the passbox, but | do not remember how these samples were packaged. Q. Did you tell anyone that you had done the surveillance cultures outside the containment area? - A. | mentioned Ce | was going to chec{ __n December and told[__] be after | did it that abou of the cultures were suspicious for anthrax. | didn't keep records or verify the cultures because | was concerned that records might be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. | was also afraid that reporting would have raised great alarm within the Institute, which at the time was very i with the ee of samples for Operation Noble Eagle. | personally decontaminated area, wiping it down with a dilute bleach solution, and gave it little thought until the incident in B3 in April. Q. Have you had any concerns about the lab operations that might cause risk to lab personnel? A. Seeing powder float around in thel____]hood raised considerable concern. In the future, | would not work with dried or powdered spores except in BL4 conditions. There needs to be more cleaning inside the suites and maybe surveillance. There may be some laxity in Bacteriology and, from what | have heard, possibly also ir.___]Most of the workers in Bacteriology are careful, but afew are somewhat careless. Cleaning of B3 seems to be performed less than back in the 1980s.