Powder in Letter At VA Hospital Proved Harmless

After a 24-hour investigation, the FBI concluded Wednesday that a mysterious letter that supposedly sickened a Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System employee on Tuesday contained no hazardous materials. In fact, it contained nothing but a letter, a spokesperson said.

The Santa Clara County Crime Lab released the results Wednesday afternoon after the envelope tested negative for several biological and hazardous agents, including Ricin and Bacillus Anthracis, said Kerri Childress, Veterans Affairs spokesperson. The FBI is holding the envelope for seven days to be safe and has not released the actual letter.

Addressed generically to the building at 3801 Miranda Avenue, the letter was opened at approximately 1:15 p.m. by an employee in the business office who said he noticed a white, gritty substance in the envelope, Childress said. He became sick, she said, vomited and was transferred to the emergency room in the neighboring building, which prompted officials to evacuate roughly 150 people from the administration building.

The man had been feeling sick before he opened the letter, which might explain the emergency, Childress said. 

"Or he might have been really nervous," Childress said.

As the employee was treated in the emergency room on Tuesday, officials called the FBI, a U.S. Postal Service inspector and the Palo Alto Fire Department, which canvassed the building with a hazardous materials crew. They found nothing else suspicious, Childress said.

No one else was injured during the incident and officials were not forced to evacuate any patients, Childress said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the building had been reopened and people were returning to work, Childress said.

"I met the man who had opened the letter and he was in good health and smiling," she said.