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--> --> Anthrax threat in Northwest remains a remote possibility PORTLAND (AP) - Though anthrax spores have now been discovered at a postal center in Kansas City, Mo., health officials say residents here shouldn't be too worried about infections spreading West. But nothing was guaranteed before Sept. 11 and nothing is guaranteed now. "The risk of mail is not zero," said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Americans should not worry about being infected by anthrax from opening their mail, Koplan said, because the risk "is very low." The distance and the handling a letter would have to go through to get from an anthrax-infected East Coast post office to a Northwest home or business make it unlikely that a letter could still carry, then release, many spores that it accidentally picked up, Oregon epidemiologist Mel Kohn said. "We know that the less material there is, the less infectious" a contaminated letter would be, Kohn said. "So I think that the risk here in Oregon is still extremely low." Kohn spoke Thursday after returning from a trip to Washington. He went there to talk about Oregon's asthma and public health work but also met with Centers for Disease Control officials investigating anthrax. Those meetings showed Kohn that Oregon health leaders need to do more planning, in case bioterrorism ever strikes here. For instance, he said, state officials will soon sketch out how they could distribute drugs to thousands of people, if needed, and where several dozen federal health investigators could work if they came to Oregon. Fears of accidental anthrax contamination followed Wednesday's discovery of a few anthrax spores inside a Kansas City distribution center, after that center got mail from the Brentwood postal center in Washington, D.C. Brentwood is the mail center that processed an anthrax-laden letter sent to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing