Posted on 02/26/2006 10:38:26 AM PST by WestTexasWend
-Federal labs doing more tests for ricin after doubts about initial positive result-
A mysterious whitish-brown powder found in a roll of quarters in a dormitory room on the University of Texas campus might not be the poison ricin after all.
A preliminary test by the Texas Department of State Health Services laboratory in Austin returned a positive result for the potentially fatal substance, prompting an evacuation of the Moore-Hill residence hall, an investigation by the FBI and worries of a link to terrorism.
But three subsequent tests at the same lab came up negative.
In addition, none of the people who might have been exposed — including the student with the quarters, her mother, her roommate and their residence hall assistant — has symptoms of ricin poisoning. The symptoms, which typically include breathing difficulty, cough, fever, nausea and tightess in the chest, usually develop within hours of exposure, health officials said.
"I'm pretty confident it's not ricin," Mike Elliott, senior district commander for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, said Saturday. "The state lab tends to be more presumptive in telling you what it might be."
It could take a day or two before additional tests at federal laboratories, which have more sophisticated equipment, give conclusive results, Elliott said.
The drama began Thursday when a student opened a roll of quarters in her dorm room to do laundry and discovered the powdery substance.
The roll came from a bank and was given to the student by her mother, who lives in the Houston suburb of Pearland, at some point last semester.
Elliott described the powder as heavy and course.
Someone intending to cause harm with a poison would probably have used a finer consistency that would be easier to inhale, he said. It's also possible that the powder was originally fine but became chunkier because of high humidity, he said.
Some banks use a powdery substance to clean coins, but such an explanation is "purely conjecture at this time," Elliott said.
"There are a lot of things that it can be and a lot of things that it likely isn't," Elliott said, adding that the powder might not contain ricin but something with a similar molecular structure.
He said less than a gram was collected, about half the contents of a packet of sugar.
The FBI called in specialists in weapons of mass destruction from Quantico, Va., to collect samples for tests at federal labs, said FBI agent Rene Salinas, a spokesman with the agency's office in San Antonio.
That office is leading an investigation of the incident by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Also on Saturday, local hazardous materials crews took apart washing machines at the dorm to see if they could find any additional powder.
"The final tests should give us a definitive answer" on whether the substance is ricin, Salinas said. "We don't believe there to be a terrorist connection at this time."
UT officials said that the powder spilled onto the student's hands when she opened the roll of quarters but that she promptly washed her hands.
Investigators would not identify the bank where the student's mother obtained the quarters. It was unclear whether the coins were rolled by a machine or by a person.
Officials gave this chronology of events:
•The powder was reported to campus police about 3 p.m. Thursday, and samples were taken to the state lab. The dorm room and the laundry room were cleaned and sanitized that afternoon.
•Campus officials learned of the positive test result for ricin about 7 or 8 p.m. Friday. Students were evacuated from Moore-Hill about 11:30 p.m. Friday after discussions with public health and law enforcement officials.
•A second cleaning and sanitizing of the affected areas took place, and students were allowed to return about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, though access to some areas, including the laundry room, was still restricted Saturday night.
Officials said the university followed a white powder protocol developed after the anthrax scares in 2001. Ricin was found in the office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., in 2004 and was found in correspondence mailed to the White House and the federal Department of Transportation in 2003.
University officials would not release the name of the student who found the powder, but The Associated Press reported that it was UT freshman Kelly Heinbaugh. Phone calls to Heinbaugh's home in Pearland were not returned Saturday.
Officials sought to assure the 400 students who live in Moore-Hill, less than a block from the football stadium, that they were safe. Despite all the emergency vehicles and uniformed officials outside the dorm Saturday, the students seemed unfazed.
Initial rumors about chemical weapons being found inside the building later turned into jokes, and although a few students stayed in other dorms Friday night, most did not.
"Someone said that we should declare February 25 Powdered Sugar Donut Day," said John Seale, a 20-year-old senior majoring in business.
"When I heard 'chemical weapon,' I was thinking, 'Oh, my God. I'm going to die in my sleep,' " said Kayla Croft, an 18-year-old freshman majoring in nursing. "Seeing the guys in the blue suits and oxygen tanks was scary, but then we realized we were safe, and everything pretty much settled down."
UT officials said students and staff members with questions may call a hot line established by Travis County Health and Human Services. The phone number is 974-2327.
lheinauer@statesman.com; 445-3694
What is ricin?
Pronunciation: RYE-sin
What it is: A poison that can be made from waste left over from processing castor beans to produce castor oil. It can be in powder, mist or pellet form, or it can be dissolved in water or a weak acid.
Beneficial uses: Potential medical applications include use in bone marrow transplants and treating cancer by killing infected cells.
Harmful uses: In 1978, Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov, a communist defector living in London, died after he was attacked by a man with an umbrella that had been rigged to inject a ricin pellet under his skin. Ricin might have been used in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s.
Symptoms: Usually occur within several hours and depend on the dose and manner of exposure. Can include difficulty breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure and organ failure.
How it works: Prevents cells from making the proteins they need, causing the cells to die.
Antidote: None known.
Advice to MSM outlets:
Whenever you hear about a test that "tentatively" proves positive for ricin, wait until further tests are done. They'll probably be negative. Preliminary tests almost always are wrong in these cases.
"Preliminary tests almost always are wrong in these cases."
I've noticed that. Why are they performed at all?
"Elliott described the powder as heavy and course."
Oughtn't that be "coarse"?
I can't spell, but I'm not publishing a newspaper.
"I've noticed that. Why are they performed at all?
"
I think these tests are performed at first, then precautions are taken if they are positive. If negative, they skip all that stuff.
Trouble is, the media jumps on these cases and broadcasts the "horrible" news to the world. It takes days to correct the stories, and they circulate all over the web.
I'm not sure how the field test for ricin works, but it could be a simple as a test for starch, which would show up positive fo most ricin samples. Trouble is, it also shows up in corn starch, as well.
I just wish the media would wait a bit, see if there was really ricin, then write their story. Apparently, in this case, there wasn't, so the story caused undue panic.
....and people wonder why the MSM has to be held at bay.
Maybe,just maybe....the facts?
Doogle
Hysteria-mongering idiots of the MSM strike again. And then they wonder why nobody loves them.
I don't believe anything I get from the MSM anymore. Not until the story has been vetted on FR can it be considered truthful or accurate.
Why? The function of journalism is to provide entertaining filler to go between the ads; checking any news item won't add anything to its entertainment value and may make it unusable.
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