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Ricin |
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The discovery of ricin on a mail-opening machine closed
three Senate office buildings in early February, 2004. Although no illnesses or
deaths resulted, using ricin as a bioterrorist weapon in the workplace remains a
serious threat. The following references aid in recognizing disease
characteristics and hazards associated with ricin.
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Ricin. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- TOXNET.
United States National Library of Medicine (NLM). Provides a cluster of databases on toxicology,
hazardous chemicals, and related areas.
- Ricin
Toxin From Castor Bean Plant. Cornell University, (2001, October 4).
- CBRNE
- Ricin. eMedicine, (2004, February 3).
- USAMRIID Blue Book. 6th ed.
US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), (2005,
April),
2 MB PDF,
187 pages. See page 100 for information on ricin.
- Office of The Surgeon General, Department of the Army. "Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warefare."
Textbook of Military Medicine, Part I. Warfare, Weaponry, and the Casualty, (1997).
- Chapter 30, Defense Against Toxic Weapons. 142 KB
PDF, 17 pages.
- Chapter 32, Ricin Toxin. 269 KB,
PDF, 12 pages.
Ricin as a Weapon
Ricin may have significance as a biological weapon since
it is easy to produce and is stable. In addition to being found on the US
Capital, the ricin toxin has also been used or suspected during the following
instances:
- Ricin was considered for weaponization by the United States during its
offensive Biological Warfare Program. Such a weapon was tested but
apparently never used in battle.
- Ricin was used in the highly publicized assassination of Bulgarian
defector Georgi Markov in 1978. An attacker used an umbrella rigged with a
special tip to inject a ricin pellet under Markov's skin.
- Some reports have indicated that ricin may have been used in the Iran-Iraq
war during the 1980s, and that quantities of ricin were found in Al Qaeda
caves in Afghanistan.
- Two tax protestors were convicted in 1995 under the Anti-Terrorism Act for
possessing ricin as a biological weapon.
- A retired electrician was arrested in 1995 under the Anti-Terrorism Act
for possessing castor beans. Two years before, a large quantity of ricin
toxin, weapons, ammunition, and gold were found in his car by Canadian
customs officials as he crossed the border from Alaska to Canada.
- In October, 2003, an envelope with a threatening note and a sealed
container with ricin was discovered at a mail processing and distribution
facility in Greenville, South Carolina. No ricin-associated illnesses were
identified as a result of the incident.
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