Officials: Anthrax victim may have been infected by tearing mail

ATLANTA - The 94-year-old Connecticut woman who mysteriously died of anthrax last fall may have been infected by spores stirred up when she tore her junk mail in half before throwing it away, health officials reported.

Investigators have never given a conclusive explanation for Ottilie Lundgren's death Nov. 21, but they have said they suspect cross-contamination through the mail.

Lundgren never received first-class mail that could be traced to an anthrax-tainted postal facility, said Dr. James Hadler, the Connecticut state epidemiologist.

But about 80 percent of the elderly woman's mail was bulk mail, Hadler said. And some of the bulk mail that went to Oxford, Conn., where Lundgren lived, passed through the same Trenton, N.J., postal facility that handled the anthrax letters sent to U.S. Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, he said.

Lundgren's habit of tearing junk mail in half before discarding it may have released enough spores into the air to infect her, Hadler said.

Connecticut health officials reported the theory at an infectious-disease conference held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The conference concluded Wednesday.

Still, Lundgren's death one of five casualties from the anthrax-by-mail attacks remains a mystery. Investigators tested 449 samples from Lundgren's home and 33 other places she visited, and they found no anthrax spores.

Health officials have conceded they do not know precisely how many anthrax spores must be inhaled to cause a deadly infection. They have said the elderly and people with weak immune systems are likely more vulnerable.

CDC leaders stressed during the attacks that the U.S. mail system was overwhelmingly safe. The agency advised people concerned about anthrax not to tear or shake their mail, and to throw away suspicious envelopes.