At an appearance today (Monday) in federal court in Des Moines, a judge will determine whether to set bail for a Marshalltown man accused of sending substances with threatening messages in the mail. Forty-six-year-old Anand Nariboli is accused of leaving messages that talked about bombs on a state law-enforcement hotline, though the man’s mother says he has mental problems and was acting erratically. When an envelope he’s accused of mailing containing white powder was found in a mailroom at Iowa State University last week, ISU Police Captain Gene Deisinger says he had an Environemtnal Health and Safety Team right on campus to respond first. Deisinger says normally the team’s job is dealing with local events. If there’s an accidental spill of a chemical it may be their domain, he says, and there are some compliance issues under the Occupational Safety and Health Act that the “H-and-S” is responsible for overseeing. Deisinger says it was good to have professionals on hand even before Haz-Mat teams arrived from Ames and Des Moines. “Blessed,” he says, to have positive relationships and excellent resources. The powder in last week’s incident was declared harmless after a preliminary investigation, though Nariboli’s also accused of sending an evenlope contaiining rat poison that closed down a Des Moines post office last month.
