Run Away, Run Away!

Don't mail unmarked baking products in envelopes... From Lewiston, Maine:

Police say a white powder that led to the shutdown of a bank processing center last week was nothing more than baking powder and sugar.

About 100 employees were evacuated from the TD Banknorth center in Lewiston for several hours after a worker opened an envelope containing the suspicious powder.

Police told the Sun Journal in Lewiston that state crime laboratory analysts determined the contents of the envelope, which had a blank sheet of paper in it, no return address and a New Jersey postmark.

People do strange things for thrills.

UPDATE: As PJC notes in comments, Boston officials find a "suspicious white powder" in a letter that turned out to be laundry detergent. I wonder how long it took them to figure out the obvious.

Comments

[PJC]

There was an incident in Boston today as well. No evac and not many details. www.boston.com

[A.Chemist]

If the mailing looks suspicious, there are steps that need to be taken to rule out "harmless white powder" from "harmful white powder." You just can't look at it and say, "That's powdered sugar."

[J.]

I refer you to Kilo's Anthrax Mailing Response Card to address this requirement, A Chemist. My idea was just to dip my finger into the stuff and taste it, a la Cheech and Chong. My train of thought - it's a hoax until otherwise proven. Of course, that's not what safety-conscious public officials want, but then again, they have to accept the high costs of treating every incident as though it were always real.