Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 24/01) - It is still not known exactly what the mysterious white powder found at the Canada Post sorting plant in Yellowknife last week is, however, it was tested and determined not dangerous.

The dust was found by a Canada Post employee on Oct. 15 and caused an anthrax scare. A biological test was not done until a week later.

"It could have been an accumulation of different types of dust in the carrier bag," Dr. Andre Corriveau, the NWT's chief medical health officer, said.

"Those bags carry all kinds of things."

He said it is a possibility the substance was talcum powder that magazines are finely dusted with to keep pages from sticking but the exact substance was not confirmed.

Because the employee who found the dust was kept under observation throughout the week the powder was held up, Corriveau said the process for shipping products to be tested should be more systematic.

The package was sent to Yellowknife on Canadian North but its transfer to Winnipeg was barred in Edmonton when Air Canada would not transport it from there.

"There has been problems with Air Canada elsewhere," Corriveau explained on his cell phone after attending a meeting of all chief medical officers in Ottawa earlier in the week.

"There was no problem with the packaging. It was with the label."

Corriveau said the sample was put in a tube and packed in styrofoam as biological samples should be.

The label described the packaging but did not use the word "over-packed" and was missing another code description, he added.

Corriveau and a spokesperson from Transport Canada said it is up to each airline to determine how stringent the rules are on transporting possible level three bio-hazardous material.

"We got a lab in Alberta to re-package it and re-label it," Corriveau said.

The Canadian Science Centre in Winnipeg received the package at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22. That day, another anthrax scare prompted police to investigate a suspicious substance in a Byers Transport truck back in Yellowknife.

The truck was carrying groceries and the powder turned out to be flour.