DENVER -- The U.S. Postal Service has created a task force to re-examine mail security and hazardous material safeguards in the wake of anthrax scares.

The U.S. Postal Service's mail delivery is safe overall, but there is a small risk that needs to be studied, Postmaster General Jack E. Potter told the National Postal Forum in Denver on Monday.

"We cannot afford for that confidence to erode. With additional vigilance and additional work with our public, we won't let that happen," he said.

The task force's formation comes after an NBC employee was exposed to the bacteria when she opened a letter containing a brown granular substance that was mailed to Tom Brokaw from Trenton, N.J.

It was postmarked Sept. 18, one week after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The Postal Service is investigating the case.

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The forum has drawn people who run mailrooms for companies or government agencies or use mail to create business, such as mail-order catalog companies and financial services. Participants also include those who sell and buy mail products and services.

Three seminars on mailroom security were added to the agenda of the three-day event.

Potter asked that the participants urge friends and neighbors to take precautions with suspicious letters or packages, including those that lack a return address or have a vague address.

He said those pieces of mail should be put in a plastic bag and turned over to authorities. "Don't open it. Don't shake it. Don't smell it," he said.

Horace Allison, who runs the mail room for the DeKalb County, Ga., government, said the county has not enacted any new security measures but he isn't concerned.

"The only thing we can do is make workers more aware of the possibility of a threat," he said. "I don't know anything else that can be done."

Steve Burn, who runs the central receiving department for Colorado State University in Fort Collins, said his employees have been trained on how to look for suspicious packages.

The department has made gloves and masks available to workers who request them.

For anthrax, Burn said, "there's not an answer on how to fix this."

Some Denver residents said that they still felt safe opening their mail.

"I bought some gloves, but I feel safe enough that I can pick up my mail and browse through it," Denver homeowner Loretta Andazola said.

Postal officials said that no employees have quit because of concerns over bioterrorism.

"We told everybody that handles mail in a way that they might need gloves to sort that it's their call. We have not had many requests for (gloves)," post office chief operating officer Patrick Donahoe said.