WASHINGTON - At least 87 suburban postal workers who handled irradiated mail have reported health problems including nausea, headaches and breathing problems, union leaders say. <br>
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Postal officials are using irradiation to protect against anthrax contamination. <br>
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At least 87 of about 750 workers at the Gaithersburg, Md., postal facility have reported problems, said Tammy Thompson, president of the Montgomery County local of the postal workers union. <br>
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``The employees are experiencing nosebleeds, runny noses, runny eyes, extreme headaches, nausea,'' Thompson told The Washington Post for a story published Saturday. <br>
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A few have missed several days of work or have filed workers' compensation claims. <br>
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The postal union complaints come about two days after physicians on Capitol Hill said 73 Senate staffers had similar symptoms. <br>
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Postal Service are investigating the safety of the treated mail. <br>
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Government investigators say the symptoms are minor and that new precautions have eliminated observable levels of harmful gases likely caused by the irradiation. <br>
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An anthrax-tainted letter was found in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office in the Hart Senate office building last October. As a precaution, mail destined for federal offices in Washington is now sanitized with radiation at postal facilities in Ohio and New Jersey. <br>
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The mail is then sorted at a postal station in Washington and sent to area postal facilities, including the one in Gaithersburg.
