Toxin Ricin Possibly Found on Capitol Hill

A powdery substance suspected to be the poison ricin was discovered Monday in a Capitol Hill mailroom near the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, raising new fears of bioterrorism.

Several tests found the white powder to be ricin, a potentially deadly toxin derived from castor beans, and additional tests were being conducted. The sight of workers in protective clothing sealing off a Senate office building brought back memories of the anthrax-laced letter sent to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) in October 2001.

At a late-night Capitol Hill news conference, Frist (R-Tenn.) said the incident was being investigated as a crime.

Frist, a physician who has written about bioterrorism, sought to reassure Capitol Hill staffers that all precautions were being taken.

There was no evidence that any of the powder had been inhaled, he said, noting that the symptoms of exposure typically would appear in four to eight hours.

“We’re beyond the eight hours of exposure, and everybody is just fine,” Frist said. He encouraged anyone who was on the fourth floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building and had developed shortness of breath or chest tightness or a cough in the previous few hours to notify the Capitol physician.

“There is no cause for alarm,” he said.

The chief of the Capitol Police, Terrance W. Gainer, said his officers were called to the office -- “a large room used to handle mail” -- about 3 p.m. Monday. It was not clear where the powder came from, he said.

Two preliminary field tests, which are frequently inaccurate, gave split results -- one positive for ricin, one negative. The substance was then taken to another facility on Capitol Hill, where three additional tests were positive. Finally, it was taken to another laboratory off Capitol Hill, where two of three tests were positive for ricin.

Gainer said the results of a definitive test would be available early this morning.

Sixteen people in the room where the powder was found have been decontaminated, Gainer said. Until the final test results come back, “we’re in a wait-and-see position,” he added.

Ricin is a deadly substance made from the mash left over from processing castor beans.

If injected, a dose the size of a head of a pin can kill an adult. The American military studied ricin for use as a weapon near the end of World War I, and with British help made a ricin bomb during World War II. The bomb was never used in battle.

Ricin is a large protein that can be inhaled, ingested or injected. In an infamous use of the poison, Bulgarian agents in 1978 shot a ricin pellet hidden in the tip of an umbrella into the leg of a dissident, Georgi I. Markov, as he strolled across London’s Waterloo Bridge. He died three days after the attack.

Ricin is hard to disperse, and is therefore not a particularly effective bioterrorism weapon if the goal is to kill large numbers of people. However, it is easy to make and to store, and Al Qaeda manuals found in Afghanistan in November 2001 reportedly described how to manufacture the toxin.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin can be dropped into water supplies, food or liquids. Once inside the body, ricin invades cells, blocking them from making the proteins they need to survive.

Mild poisoning by ricin can induce nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, the CDC said. Severe poisoning can damage the liver and cause death.

Someone who has breathed in ricin can begin to show symptoms within eight hours of exposure, according to the CDC. The victim would have trouble breathing, run a fever, cough, feel nauseated and have a tightness in the chest. Someone who swallows the poison could begin showing symptoms, including vomiting and bloody diarrhea, in as little as six hours after exposure.

The agent is not contagious, and the only way to be poisoned by ricin is to come in contact with it.

There is no treatment for ricin poisoning.

In January, British anti-terrorist forces arrested six Algerian men in a London apartment, where small quantities of ricin were seized. The men were believed to be linked to Al Qaeda.

An envelope containing ricin also was discovered in October in a postal distribution facility in Greenville, S.C. A note threatening to poison water supplies if demands were not met was found with the envelope. No one was injured in the incident.

The substance found on Capitol Hill on Monday was not the first poison to have turned up in senators’ offices. In October 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, envelopes containing anthrax were mailed to Daschle and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).

The Hart Senate Office Building was evacuated after the anthrax-tainted letter was opened in Daschle’s office; the Leahy letter was found in a search of quarantined mail. The building was closed until Jan. 22, 2002, for decontamination. Since then all mail sent to Capitol Hill has been irradiated.

However, Frist said irradiation would likely have no effect on ricin because the substance is neither a virus nor a bacterium.

The anthrax-by-mail attacks occurred over several weeks in September and October of 2001, targeting media outlets in Florida and New York as well as the senators’ offices.

Five people contracted anthrax and died. Thousands of people were tested for anthrax, and 19 became ill but recovered. No one has been arrested in connection with the mailings.