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Security concerns stop mail delivery

Healthcare Security Weekly, January 29, 2007

Walter Reed Army Medical Center has had to stop accepting mail addressed to unnamed patients, in part because of security concerns.

The Washington, DC hospital, where many of the wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan receive treatment, could no longer handle the volume of mail and the security screening required, reported the Asbury Park Press.

The mail is typically addressed to "any wounded soldier." Mail specifically addressed to patients will be delivered as usual. A hospital spokesman said some gifts such as cookies that can scatter powdered sugar—reminiscent of the white anthrax powder mailed to some Capitol Hill offices shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks—made unspecified mail too much of a security risk.

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