The Direct Marketing Association has challenged reports linking advertising mail with anthrax infection, arguing that direct mail is the safest mail in the postal system.
Connecticut health officials said on Tuesday that the 94 year-old Ottilie Lundgren probably was infected by “contaminated junk mail” that went through the Trenton, NJ postal facility. That unit also processed contaminated letters sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy.
Lundgren tended to tear direct mail in half before discarding it, and that may have led to her being infected, according to one report.
But the DMA countered that these statements “appear to be based only on assumptions and not facts.”
The DMA added that, “while cross contamination is an issue of concern, the likelihood of it occurring with advertising mail is very small. Advertising mail bypasses postal sorting locations and comes into infrequent contact with collection mail.
In addition, the DMA pointed out that “marketers who use advertising mail as part of their campaigns already have tight controls on the production and dissemination of their mail pieces.”
The DMA continued that commercial mail is “carefully sealed, accounted for and often goes from production sources to delivery units.”
Speaking at a medical conference in Atlanta, state epidemiologist Dr. James L. Hadler said that 80% of Lundgren’s mail was bulk, and that some of it went through Trenton, the Times said.
However, Hadler fell just short of saying that the evidence was conclusive.
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