By Erin Johnson
Idaho Technology of Salt Lake reopened Monday, Nov. 12, after shutting down over the weekend as four employees tested positive for anthrax on an initial test.
Follow-up testing showed the detected strand to be nothing more than a contamination of harmless anthrax DNA, said Todd Ritter, director of business development at Idaho Technology.
'We had to do the precautionary thing and shut down until we made sure that it was not a threat,' Ritter said.
The four employees suspected for the infection had just returned from assignments on the East Coast where anthrax cases have killed four people and infected 13 others.
Idaho Technology has been working in cooperation with the Utah Department of Health to use its biotechnological equipment to test agencies and office buildings for the fatal anthrax strain.
Since Oct. 9, the health department has investigated approximately 200 anthrax incidents, health department spokeswoman Janna Kettering said.
Since reopening, Ritter said it is business as usual and the company 'is just cranking along.'
Ritter does not believe the incident is anything more than a one time scare or that Idaho Technologies is any more of a target for an attack than any other business simply because it houses the anthrax testing equipment.