Dust Up: Office bustle launches anthrax spores

The commotion of everyday business can give anthrax spores a second wind, a new study suggests. Normal office activity stirs up the dangerous particles parked on contaminated indoor surfaces and sends them into the air.

After letters packed with the bacterium Bacillus anthracis passed through several buildings in the eastern United States in the fall of 2001, anthrax infections killed 5 people and sickened 17 others.