Ricin Discovered in Texas Dormitory

Yahoo News & AP ^ | February 25, 2006

[genefromjersey]

Updated story from Yahoo News & AP:

Ricin Discovered in Texas Dormitory

AUSTIN - A University of Texas student found a substance that has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, in a roll of quarters she was using to do laundry in her dormitory, officials said.

The student and her roommate were being treated for potential exposure to the poison, although neither has exhibited symptoms, said Dr. Theresa Spalding of UT Student Health Services.

The student told university police she found the chunky powder Thursday as she was doing her laundry at the Moore-Hill dormitory, Spalding said. Preliminary tests for ricin came back positive Friday.

"We were very concerned as soon as we heard about the positive testing late this evening," Spalding said. She said the quarters had been in the students' dorm room for several months.

Ricin is extracted from castor beans and can be added to food or water, injected or sprayed as an aerosol. It can be in the form of a powder, mist, pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.

Symptoms can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.

The dorm was sanitized and inspected, and students were cleared to return, the university said.

Ricin Discovered in Texas Dormitory

____

AUSTIN - A substance discovered by a student in a University of Texas dormitory has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, officials said.

The chunky powder was found at the Moore-Hill dormitory Thursday and reported to university police, officials said. Tests for ricin came back positive Friday. Officials don't know where it came from, said campus police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon.

[Jane Austen]

No doubt!

[Zeppelin]

And of course, the million dollar un-pc question...are there any ME students living in the dorm?

I'm an ME senior at UT. Not living in a dorm though. So what's the question? The ricin was found in a roll of quarters that the girl had had for months.

[Zeppelin]

*****Ok? How do they know it was an out of state bank?*****

Because the student was from out of state and brought it back with her from home.

[LA Woman3]

FBI conducting tests to verify substance found in UT dorm

By LIZ AUSTIN
Associated Press Writer


AUSTIN — The FBI said Saturday it was conducting further tests to verify if a powdery substance found in a University of Texas at Austin dormitory was the potentially deadly poison ricin.

The Moore-Hill dormitory's roughly 400 residents were evacuated Friday night while hazardous materials crews cleaned and sanitized the dorm room and laundry room where the substance was found. They were back in their rooms by Saturday morning, and school officials said no students have shown symptoms of exposure such as dizziness or respiratory problems.

Kelly Heinbaugh, a 19-year-old freshman, said the powder spilled onto her hands as she unwrapped a roll of quarters to do her laundry on Thursday. She said she'd used five other rolls of quarters her mother had gotten from the same bank and none had powder in them.

"I guess you can say I was just weirded out," said Heinbaugh, a kinesiology major who walked on to the school's track and cross country teams. "It seemed out of place ... I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry." She said she got checked out at a hospital on Friday night but hasn't shown any symptoms. Her roommate, whom she declined to name, also was evaluated and cleared.

Because people with ricin poisoning develop symptoms within a few hours of exposure, university officials are confident all the students will be fine, said Dr. Theresa Spalding with UT student health services.

"We feel like we have taken every precaution possible to assure the safety and health of our students," university spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.

The university said preliminary test showed the substance to be ricin but the FBI was conducting further tests, FBI spokesman Rene Salinas said. Salinas said there was no indication of terrorism.

"There is nothing to lead us to believe that it is in fact a terrorist act," he said. "There's no link to any terrorism."

Heinbaugh said she called her mother, who told her to wash her hands and tell the dormitory manager. The manager called the university police, and environmental health and safety crews cleaned and sanitized the areas.

Heinbaugh was home for the weekend in the Houston suburb of Pearland when university officials called and told her the test results. She said she wasn't worried because she felt fine but agreed to go to the hospital as a precaution.

Heinbaugh's mother, Eileen, said she was shocked to hear the quarters she'd gotten her daughter were contaminated. She declined to say where she got them, other than that it was a national bank that her family has used for years.

"It's kind of indicative of the world that we're living in right now," Eileen Heinbaugh said. "You'd like to think you can go get quarters from the bank and not have poison in them."

Residents of the coed dormitory a block from UT's football stadium seemed mostly unconcerned about the episode Saturday, with most of them going about life like normal. A police officer was stationed outside the laundry room, which was cordoned off with yellow police tape.

Resident Daniel Gentener said he was "never really worried."

"I thought they did things appropriately," he said. "I don't feel nervous about anything."

Deadly and easy to produce, ricin is extracted from castor beans. It can be added to food or water, injected or sprayed as an aerosol. A small amount of ricin that is inhaled, injected or ingested can kill a person within 36 hours.

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Ricin_University_Dorm.html ____

[Bookmark]

It's not clear what you're saying.

[Christopher Lincoln]

By all reports that's very unlikely.

[daybreakcoming]

EdLake - I just got a $5 roll of dimes from my bank last week and I just wish they had give me a roll like that. I got the fold-over on the ends kind - no seal. What I'm saying is that your example of a roll is not always the case from a bank.

The rest of it - we can only speculate as you have done.

[penelopesire]

I was just coming to post a similar article:


"Tests on UT powder inconclusive for ricin protein; more tests needed"

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=156231&SecID=2

[Ptarmigan]

Good lord! My school is in the national spotlight for having ricin. Scary stuff! Hits close to home for me.

[LA Woman3]

Thanks! Hopefully we'll know more in the morning!

[JohnBovenmyer]

Officials say one test returned positive for that protein, while a second was inconclusive, and a third was negative. The definitive test will come from the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Why bother with the tests? It's Ronnie Earl's jurisdiction. Just arrest the usual suspect. Tom DeLay is a former exterminator and UT is a known 'Rat haven. The Hammer was just trying to put his training to work...

[Palladin]

>>>Ricin is extremely prone to false positives because it's very similar to a lot of various food items; the famous "jar of Ricin in a Paris subway" turned out to be wheat germ, for example.<<<

Good point. The news tonight is that the State Lab says it is NOT ricin.

I wonder if the girl with the coins is some kind of drama queen.

[Rte66]

Our news showed the hazmat people going back in and getting more samples out of the coin mechanisms in the laundry room, then putting them in white buckets which were supposed to be going to the FBI.

The girl is still at home at her parents' house in Pearland - they wouldn't talk to news, but did say she is doing fine.

[Palladin]

I guess it was a false alarm, if no one got sick and no one died. Ricin, according to posts above, causes symptoms pretty quickly.

Maybe a bank employee was eating a powdered donut while hovering over the coin-wrapping machine?

[Richard Kimball]

I wonder if the girl with the coins is some kind of drama queen.

Assuming she didn't plant it herself, if I opened a roll of quarters and found a significant quantity of white powder, and I was in Austin, I'd first suspect that it came from Willie Nelson's place. Second, I'd isolate it and report it, after thoroughly washing my hands.

[Palladin]

>>>I'd first suspect that it came from Willie Nelson's place<<<

ROFL!

[Rte66]

Evidently it was the "chunkiness" of it that caused her concern. Still sounds like laundry detergent--the way it sometimes clumps together into little chunks and has fairly large granules.

'Course I don't really know what ricin looks like. I'd be dead, because I would not have given the stuff a second thought.

[Blogger]

I'm starting to get a bad feeling. Anyone heard about the case of Joel Hinrichs III lately? Nothing here. Everyone just move along.

[Battle Axe]

Ahhhh... good place to hide drugs.

I thought she might be ditsy and had put the quarters in the box of soap because she couldn't carry it all, then forgot!!! that the quarters had been in the soap.

We can learn a lot by determining what exactly this was.

Best way to test on site. Get one rabbit and toss some of the stuff down it's throat. Wait......maybe 5 minutes....

I know, I know.....poor little bunny....

[ndt]

"I see Castor Bean Plants growing in peoples' gardens all the time, and I report each occurrence to the DHS folks in Harrisburg. "

Boy you must be fun to live next too. You should join the homeowners association, you will fit right in /sarc