The contaminated (and convicted?) staff were told to leave Bush House, walk into a parking lot of the company's, strip and be hosed down, after a powder, suspected of being anthrax, was found in the company mail.

The Mail on Sunday broke the story in which a traumatised Beeb spokesperson was quoted, "It was appalling and some of the women in particular were deeply upset." The Mail reported that many staff members were kept in the cold for hours while their offices were checked for the toxin of the month.

Eventually told they could go home early, many stranded staff informed officials that they still had no clothes for their journey. A member of the National Union of Journalists then chastised the organisation outside the Grays Inn Road HQ for the pubcaster's lack of preparation "It was a madhouse. Given that other media organizations had been targeted, the BBC should have been better prepared. It seems no effort was made to provide people with privacy when they undressed, nor were the sexes separated."