By Lori Ehde
Luverne High School graduate Eric Steinhoff has had more than his share of terrorist experiences while interning for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
On Sept. 11 he witnessed firsthand the effects of attacks on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
This week, his work was affected by bioterrorism when a letter sent to Daschle's office tested positive for anthrax Monday.
"I'm worried to death about him," Steinhoff's father, Dave, said Wednesday after speaking with his son that morning.
He said one of Eric's primary responsibilities in Daschle's office is sorting through mail, but that day he happened to be out on errands.
"He wasn't actually in that room, but it could have traveled through the air ducts," Dave said. "They're going to have to close the building down."
Eric was tested and so far appears not to have been exposed, but 29 out of 40 employees have tested positive for being exposed to spores of the potentially deadly bacteria.
Daschle was in the Capitol and was not exposed to the letter, which was opened in his other office a block away in the Hart Senate Office Building.