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THERE has been a run on fume cupboards in Haverhill from people nervous about opening their post.

Labspace, the company that normally makes the cupboards for laboratories, is suddenly getting orders from national newspapers and other organisations wary of anthrax letters.

David Leeming, company chairman, said: “There has been a bit of a panic. People want the little fume cupboards to open the post.”

As well as national papers, the police have also been placing orders, but Mr Leeming will not be more specific as to which forces or which newspapers: “Otherwise some loonies will send packages.”

He said production of cupboards had been stepped up — the firm normally sells no more than 100 a year — with most of the parts made in Haverhill, and assembled at the firm’s Bristol plant.

“The cupboards are like a vacuum cleaner on top of a cloche. They are two feet wide and have a fan which sucks the airflow away from you, takes it into a filter and then sends the clean air back out into the room.”

Users, whether handling deadly viruses in a micro-biology lab or opening the gas bill, wear rubber gloves and poke their hands through a narrow gap at the bottom of the cupboard.

We don’t really see ourselves selling cupboards to every home in Britain to open the telephone bill,” Mr Leeming said.

For the record, the company which is owned by Hartest Holdings, says there has never been a documented terrorist attack in Europe similar to the current one in the U.S. involving anthrax.