Posted on 02/25/2006 4:25:06 PM PST by Pharmboy
An FBI-led task force is trying find out how the deadly poison ricin wound up in a roll of coins used by a student in a University of Texas dormitory, officials said on Saturday.
The chunky white powder was found on Thursday night when the student, doing her laundry in coin-operated washing machines, spilled the coins out of a paper tube onto her dorm room desk, said Theresa Spalding, medical director of health services at the university in Austin, Texas.
The roll of coins was one of two given to the woman by her mother, Spalding said.
Preliminary tests on Friday showed the powder to be ricin, a poison made from castor beans, campus police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.
Neither the student nor her roommate were suffering symptoms of ricin exposure, Spalding said.
"This is not associated with any threats against the campus," Weldon said.
Spalding and Weldon said the ricin discovery is being investigated by an FBI-led joint terrorism task force that includes the campus police. A spokesman for the FBI San Antonio Joint Terrorism Task Force was not available to comment.
Ricin is not deadly on contact with the skin and must be eaten, inhaled or injected to cause harm, Spalding said.
Ricin is made from a by-product of castor bean oil production. Toxicologists say it can be made easily in an ordinary kitchen.
Once a person has been exposed to ricin, the poison can prevent cells from making necessary proteins, causing the cells to die and eventually harming the whole body.
In 2005, an al Qaeda-trained Algerian man, Kamel Bourgass, was convicted in a plot to spread ricin throughout streets in Britain.
I've heard it said of ricin that it's "almost custom-tailored to kill human beings."
What to make of that? < /britthumemode >
Maybe this will be another one of those things they'll be completely unable to explain.
I am glad they didn't play "quarters".
Somebody find Prof. Robert Jensen and spray him "liberally" with this stuff.
I heard that Austin was pretty liberal, like Chapel Hill, NC.
That is most definitely true
When I graduated from Carolina in 1980, it was a fairly balanced place but it has become a lib-tard haven. I remember walking out of a sociology class when the professor went into an anti-Republican tirade. My parting comment "I didn't pay my tuition to listen to this liberal bullshit". It was the only C I ever got in 4 years of college!
Heard on WABC news that subsequent tests proved negative for Ricin. Guess the media will continue on with this non story for as long as possible.
Eh, one of those overheated hype statements surrounding a lot of chemicals.
Ricin is Middle-School Science Fair technology in terms of difficulty and avaliability of the necessary components.
On the original thread I pointed out Ricin is so similar to a lot of foods there's a severe false positive problem on preliminary tests...so this was just now? the CDC tests?
Boy, they're going to need grief counselors over at the Northeast Stupidity Network if so.....
The media will simply move on to the next non event as tho this never happened.
Just leftover beans, perhaps...
Feb 25, 8:08 PM EST
More Tests Needed in Texas Ricin Scare
By LIZ AUSTIN
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN (AP) -- A University of Texas student found a substance in a roll of quarters that tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, but more tests were needed, officials said Saturday.
The 19-year-old student, who said she unwrapped the powder in her dormitory room Thursday, and her roommate were checked at a hospital for potential exposure to the poison, although neither had any symptoms, officials said.
"I guess you can say I was just weirded out," said Kelly Heinbaugh, a freshman kinesiology major. "It seemed out of place ... I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry."
Because people with ricin poisoning develop symptoms within a few hours of exposure, university officials were confident all the students would be fine, said Dr. Theresa Spalding with university
Symptoms can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.
The university said preliminary test showed the substance to be ricin, but the FBI was conducting further tests, FBI spokesman Rene Salinas said.
"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."
Officials said the roll of quarters had been in the students' room at the Moore-Hill dormitory for several months.
Doctor Theresa Spalding, University of Texas Student Health Services, in A-P interview: Spalding says tests are still inconclusive. (note audio quality)
The dormitory was sanitized and inspected, and students were cleared to return, the university said.
"We feel like we have taken every precaution possible to assure the safety and health of our students," university spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.
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.
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Ricin Discovered in Texas Dormitory
The latest updates on that thread start at # 104 here and # 144 here.
you were braver than I was... I just bit my tongue, nodded, regurgitated the bullsh#t back for my grade and thought "I can't wait to get out into the real world and away from these little pu$$ies."
It was a sociology class and I started off liking her. But as the semester ground on, it became apparent that the class was more of a soapbox for her liberal views and criticisms of all things conservative. I finally reached my breaking point, closed my books and stormed out, uttering what I did in a very audible voice. You could have heard a flea fart in there as I left. It was a Tuesday/Thursday class and I came back that Thursday. She asked me if I was planning to stay this time and I told her that would depend on whether we were going to talk about sociology or liberal politics. Looking back I was amazed I had the stones to stand up to her like that because that was not the way I was raised. Nowadays it would be a no-brainer, but at 20 it was a pretty ballsy move for me. As Popeye would say "that's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!!!"
Seems a home grown type of nut to me.
We live it. You heard correctly.
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