Scares spread to campus

A hazardous materials crew responded to three anthrax scares on campus Tuesday, the result, an official said, of the dangerous combination of growing fear and a likely harmless white powder.\nThe Bloomington Township Fire Department hazardous materials crew removed a powdery white substance from two Wright Quad bathrooms Tuesday morning and returned to campus in the afternoon to remove a similar substance from a Forest Quad bathroom.\nWhile tests on the substance found at Wright have not been completed, a student said the substance found at Forest is Gold Bond medicated powder he spilled in the bathroom.\nOff campus, a suspected case on North Park Avenue turned out to be a prank with flour.\n"We want people to use common sense and not to be paranoid," said IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger. "(Paranoia) is a weapon people try to use. In law enforcement, we see that every day. Not from terrorists, but from criminals who try to make residents feel unsafe in their own environment."\nThe hazardous materials team takes every precaution with each potential anthrax threat. \n"With all the stuff going on now, you have to take every one serious," said Bloomington Township Fire Chief Faron Livingston. "The minute you drop your guard, that's when you get burned."\nAs new anthrax exposures and incidents are reported across the country, fear and false alarms have also reached a fever pitch. Monroe County officials dealt with four anthrax scares before being called to Wright Tuesday morning.\nCompared to a rash of anthrax scares in Indiana in 1998, John Hooker, Monroe County's Coordinator of Emergency Management, called the latest round of threats "a whole new ball game."\n"Then it was statewide, now it's nationwide," Hooker said.\nAt Wright Quad, the suspicious substance was discovered late Monday. Officials sealed off the area and called the Bloomington Township Hazardous Materials team, one of 38 such teams in the state.\nWhen the HazMat crew arrived at 9 a.m. Tuesday, team members closed affected areas, set up a containment zone, donned protective suits and ventilator masks, gathered the substance into plastic bags and used bleach to clean their suits.\nThe substance was found in the men's bathroom adjacent to the Wright Formal Lounge and in a bathroom in Todd House. Samples of the substance were sent to state health department labs and to a chemical lab at Jordan Hall, Minger said.\nAt Forest, freshman Geoff Petzel woke from a nap between classes in his seventh floor room and was headed for the bathroom when he noticed a crowd of people in the hall. He saw men in biohazard suits and a portion of hallway floor outside the bathroom covered with plastic -- the containment area.\nRemembering that a floormate uses Gold Bond powder, Petzel found the floormate, who explained to firefighters he had spilled it in the bathroom that morning. \nStill, HazMat crew members compared the powders and removed the substance.\n"Given the situation nationally, I guess I can understand it, but it's an overreaction," Petzel said. "To me, it doesn't seem like one of these buildings would ever be a target."\nThere has never been evidence that IU or Bloomington has anything to worry about when it comes to terrorism, chemical or otherwise, Minger said.\nLaw enforcement officials want people to evaluate why certain things are suspicious, Minger said.\n"Powder in a restroom ... is not out of the ordinary," Minger said. "By the same token, though, because these are times of higher caution, you would hope common sense would prevail on the other side too and people wouldn't throw around white powder anywhere"