Foreign Letter’s Strange Substance Sends State Workers To Hospital

What exactly was on the envelope that got 3 state workers sick on Tuesday? Sounds like the opening line to joke, but this wasn't anything to laugh at. Police say state workers have been taken to a hospital after becoming ill in their Albany office when one of them opened a letter from a foreign country.

What exactly was on that envelope has yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure, whatever it did enough damage to affect not only the individual who opened the letter, but two other workers who apparently worked in close proximity to person who first fell ill.

Albany police spokesman Steven Smith says the fire department's hazardous materials team responded around noon Tuesday to the Department of State's offices on the fifth floor of One Commerce Plaza, near the state Capitol in downtown Albany according to a report from Newschannel 13.

He says firefighters deemed there was nothing dangerous on the letter and that the letter has been turned over to the state police for testing.