WASHINGTON (AP) -- A white powder found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office tested Tuesday as the deadly poison ricin, forcing cancellation of most Senate business in the second such scare from a lethal toxin to hit the capital.
Between 40 and 50 Capitol employees were quarantined briefly and decontaminated, said Senate aides who spoke on condition of anonymity -- considerably more than originally thought.
Although more tests were being conducted, Frist said he was positive the substance was ricin and officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several of their tests identified it as ricin. They said they were awaiting the results of additional confirmatory testing.
The CDC officials said they were somewhat reassured because none of the people who were quarantined and decontaminated turned up sick.
One Senate aide said that up to 50 people, including 10 police officers, were quarantined -- and then decontaminated -- Monday night in a room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Other aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that dozens of employees went through the process.
Some Senate employees had been cleared to go home Monday after the powder was discovered, only to be telephoned later by their colleagues and advised to put their clothes in a plastic bag and rinse themselves off as a precaution, Senate aides said.
Frist said that a ``definitive test'' had confirmed that the powder was ricin.
Said CDC Director Dr. Julie Geberding: ``As each minute ticks by, we are less and less concerned about the health effects.'' If the ricin were pure, she said, ``We would expect very early onset. The fact that we haven't seen that is reassuring.''
President Bush was briefed on the situation, and the administration established an interagency team to investigate what Frist told colleagues was a chilling crime.
Although Senate leaders made a show of conducting business as usual Tuesday, they later canceled all votes that had been scheduled for the day. At the Senate office buildings, entrances were locked and many staffers were said to be working from home.
Buildings were eerily quiet, underscoring the sense that the area has essentially been under a terrorism threat since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Police told lawmakers not to open any mail. Mail to congressional offices has been irradiated since the 2001 anthrax attack, but radiation would not have an effect on ricin, Frist said.
A simple ``Closed'' sign was tacked onto one of the main, ornate doors of the Dirksen office building that housed Frist's office. Through a window of the Dirksen building a pile of red, plastic bags could be seen in the hallway. Yellow sheets were erected to cordon off areas off the hall.
Adding to the tension was the discovery later Tuesday of a white powdery substance on the first floor of the Capitol building itself, prompting a partial shutdown and evacuation. A corridor was reopened after preliminary tests were negative, said Capitol Hill police spokeswoman Contricia Ford.
Frist said he had been told ``the definitive test'' on the powder ``said it was ricin for sure.'' Frist said he was referrseing to a type of testing known as PCR or polymerase chain reaction, that detects a gene from the castor plant from which ricin is made.
The CDC planned additional PCR tests to confirm if the powder contained ricin. Also, Army scientists were to inject samples of the powder found in Frist's office into laboratory animals to see if they become ill, said a federal health official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no threatening letter or note linked to the powder has been found.
Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota, majority leader in 2001 when deadly anthrax was found in letters sent to his office and the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., called the ricin discovery ``obviously a criminal act.''
``I believe that it is an act of terrorism,'' Daschle said. ``It certainly is criminal. I don't draw a distinction between the two, frankly.''
Some senators opened temporary work areas in the Capitol on Tuesday.
``There's sort of an odd sense of deja vu with the anthrax and that this is happening again,'' said Tessa Hafen, a spokeswoman for Sen. .Harry Reid of Nevada, the senate's No. 2 Democrat.
A U.S. government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that although ricin is a harmful toxin, the situation in the Frist's office does not bear the marks of international terrorism.
``Somebody in all likelihood manufactured this with intent to harm,'' Frist told his colleagues at the opening of the Senate session.
In 2001, an anthrax-laced letter shut down Congress briefly and closed the Hart Senate Office Building for months of expensive cleaning. Five people were killed and 17 sickened nationwide after coming into contact with letters containing anthrax. An investigation continues.
A clue to ricin poisoning is a suddenly developed fever, cough and excess fluid in the lungs, a fact sheet from CDC says. These symptoms could be followed by severe breathing problems and possibly death, it said. There is no known antidote.
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