A year ago, wearing latex gloves to open mail or taking courses about how to use gasmasks would have seemed silly to most people on Capitol Hill.

Today, nearly a year after 9-11 and the subsequent anthrax episodes, those and other security-related practices have become routine.

Staffers now have to pass through metal detectors to enter House and Senate office buildings and must keep their laminated ID cards on display when they are inside. Police officers screen cars before admitting them to parking garages under the buildings.

The greatest changes in the past year involve the Capitol’s mail system, which was shut down last October after an employee in Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s office opened an anthrax-laden letter. A second piece of mail containing anthrax was sent to, but not opened by, the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Today, mail that is addressed to congressional offices is subjected to a rigorous screening and irradiation process. To be extra safe, many aides use gloves when handling the mail.

“You get yellow stuff all over your hands” from the irradiation, said Caileen Nutter, a spokeswoman for Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine. Dozens of aides have complained about sicknesses — ranging from rashes to bloody noses – that they fear are related to handling irradiated mail.

The new mail system also has resulted in delays: it now takes two or three weeks for a letter from Maine to arrive in a House or Senate office.

That is considerably quicker than it took last winter. Christmas cards were arriving in Collins’ office months after the holiday season. A wreath was delivered in March. “It was all twigs,” Nutter said.

Capitol Hill offices no longer can receive packages from FedEx or UPS, which had been popular ways for district and Washington offices to correspond. Instead, packages often are routed to staffers’ homes.

Nor can couriers deliver packages to congressional offices. Jackie Potter, chief of staff in the office of Rep. Tom Allen, D-Portland, says she sometimes sends interns to meet couriers at nearby restaurants to receive packages.

Some lawmakers’ offices have reported an exodus of staff members. Since Sept. 11, more than half of Allen’s Washington staff has left Capitol Hill, said Potter, who attributes the trend to the new worries and inconveniences that came on the heels of the terror-filled fall.

“We’ve never had anything like that happen before,” she said.

Most aides, however, agree that the everyday inconveniences – slow mail delivery, lines to enter buildings – are a small price to pay for safety.

“Virtually our whole staff appreciates the heightened level of concern,” said Dave Lackey, spokesman for Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine.

“Things are basically back to normal,” said Doug Dunbar, a spokesman for Rep. John Baldacci, who occupied one of the three House offices contaminated anthrax spores. The Bangor Democrat and his aides were displaced for several months as authorities decontaminated the office.

In the event of another bio-terrorist attack, aides say Capitol Hill will be better prepared. Congressional offices are equipped with bags of gas masks for staffers and interns, who have been trained about how to use them by the Capitol Police.

“It’s a good idea because you never know what’s going to happen,” Potter said.