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b6 bIC ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN I$ UNCLASSIFIED DATE 12-12-2008 BY 60324 uc baw/rs/njs lam 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 not be adequately contained with the practices: that were being used here in the Institute. | also was concerned that contaminati D tl 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 lett 2 A. | worked on this letter os a also presatinsnadatl when | was working with the powder from this letter. | received the letter from| in room a ff had already been used in the area. It was contained i 3 ziplocks. | carried it to the pastor] From the passbox, | took it to the hood me} opened it, and scraped some of the powder from the envelope and letter into a pre-weighed Wheaton vial. | was surprised at how fine the powder was. It floated around inside the hood "fo t in the sunlight. After removing the powder, | wiped off the vial with bleach, put the vial in al ropylene tube and bleached that tube. | then sent the vial out through the passbox into the lab f¢ ighing. | 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 i 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 put | do not remember if | returned itor someone else did. . 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. | also received some other powdered sample front hat came in through the passbox, but ! do not remember how these samples were packaged. A. | mentioned to] hat | was going to chec! in December and told[__] after | did it that about 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 busy with the processing 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. Did you tell ce that “| had done the surveillance cultures outside the containment area? 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 it 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.