By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

CONCERNS were raised yesterday that the country’s main post office could be infested with thousands of rats.

Not only does the building on East Hill Street funnel and distribute roughly 350,000 pieces of mail daily to more than 60 post offices and administrative buildings throughout the country, two ministries, including the Attorney General’s Office, and the Ministry of Labour, are housed at that location.

The question of mail contamination at the Post Office was raised by Thomas Miller who upon collecting a package, mailed from Germany for his son’s birthday, was told that rats had bitten through the box in an attempt to eat its contents. The box, which contained chocolate, had to be thrown away.

Mr Miller said the post office’s mail handlers did not want to touch the box because they were sure that rats had contaminated it with urine. Those workers further warned, Mr Miller said, that “rats the size of dogs” had for years been running wild throughout the building.

“After trying to track down the package for some time, which was sent six weeks before my son’s birthday on July 26,” he said, “I went there after they called me and said that they had finally found it. There was a hole on top of the box and on the side of the box. They put the box in a plastic bag because no one wanted to touch it.

“Everyone’s mail goes through there and it’s a known fact that rats piss on everything they crawl on. You mean to tell me that all my mail has rat piss on it? It’s quite possible that every piece of mail in this country has rat urine on it. That’s ridiculous.”

However, Post Master General, Leslie Cartwright denied that the post office was struggling with an infestation. He said postal affairs worldwide have a problem of rats getting into packages with food items.

“I doubt,” he said, “there is one and to my knowledge there is no infestation. We don’t have rats running rampant in here. I will say though, that rats do, from time to time, find their way into packages that might have food in them. We see this during Valentines and Christmas. The case you speak of has been our first one since Christmas when we recorded three damaged packages.”

He said once staff knows that food is contained in packages, they are diligent in housing them in an area free of rodents.

Persons sending packages containing food, Mr Cartwright said, are urged to clearly state the contents on the parcel’s label.