State lab results released this week back up what the Ohio University Police Department initially thought: a white, powdery substance in an envelope sent to Ohio University Legal Services was harmless.
Turns out the substance was toothpaste, which OUPD says is often used by prison inmates to seal envelopes.
The letter was sent from a prison in West Virginia and contained application and background materials related to an applicant at the University. Law enforcement in West Virginia interviewed the subject — identified as male — who sent the package and determined that he had used toothpaste to seal the envelope, according to a statement from OUPD.
The department concluded that as the toothpaste dried while in transit and would have appeared powdery when the letter was opened.
Officers responded to the 160 W. Union St. Office Center on April 25 after an employee at the OU Legal Affairs office reported opening an envelope that contained a white, powdery substance.
The employee was hospitalized and later released, according to a statement from Stephen Golding, OU vice president for Finance and Administration. OUPD did an initial field test on the substance that day and found it not to be harmful, but ordered a lab test with the Ohio Department of Health in Columbus.
OUPD got the negative results back from Columbus on Monday, according to the department's statement.
