Baking soda causes scare at IRS office

About 60 workers at a multipurpose Internal Revenue Service facility in Holtsville were isolated for about two hours Tuesday after an envelope containing a white powder -- later determined to be baking soda -- was discovered in a mailroom, officials said.

Dianne Besunder, a spokeswoman for the IRS, said 55 employees and three managers were isolated after the envelope was discovered, sometime before 9 a.m.

The New York Joint Task Force on Terrorism, which includes Suffolk County police and its hazardous materials team, responded, and preliminary tests indicated the powder was baking soda, Besunder said.

James Margolin, an FBI agent and a task force spokesman, said the incident was being investigated. Neither Besunder nor Margolin had any more details on the envelope or how it was found.

Margolin said workers exposed to the envelope displayed "no known symptoms." There were no injuries, Besunder said.

Besunder said about 3,000 employees work at the IRS facility at 1040 Waverly Ave. The building was not evacuated, she said, but the workers who came in contact with the envelope were isolated for about two hours before being sent back to work at about 11 a.m.