Former Tabloid Building Cleaned of Anthrax
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The former headquarters of a supermarket tabloid was declared clean of anthrax spores Monday, almost three years after it became the first target in a series of deadly attacks.
The cleanup crew finished decontaminating the American Media Inc. building at 7:30 a.m., said Karen Cavanagh, chief operating officer of BioONE (search) and Sabre Technical Services.
"We have no viable spores in the building," Cavanagh said.
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Officials started pumping chlorine dioxide into the building Sunday. Follow-up tests are required before a quarantine is lifted, which could take up to eight weeks.
The arrival of anthrax in the mail at the building was the first in a series of still-unsolved attacks that killed five people, among them photo editor Bob Stevens of AMI's tabloid the Sun. The attacks rattled a nation shaken by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks a month earlier.
AMI, which also publishes The National Enquirer (search), abandoned the three-story office after anthrax was found in 2001. A real estate investor bought the building for a paltry $40,000 and made plans to lease it to BioONE, a company established by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (search).
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BioONE plans to occupy the space by the end of the year as the headquarters for its new crisis management venture.