[JustPiper]

Ricin letter wanted rollback on truck regulations
Washington Times ^ | 2/24/04 | Jerry seper

Posted on 02/24/2004 12:04:39 AM CST by kattracks

A ricin-tainted letter mailed to the White House in October threatened to turn the nation's capitol "into a ghost town" if new trucking regulations were not repealed, according to the FBI, which has posted a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

The White House letter, processed through a postal facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Oct. 17, was the second one intercepted that demanded an end to new regulations mandating more rest and orienting drivers toward a 24-hour work-and-rest cycle.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1084176/posts

[WestCoastGal]

The extreme toxicity of the compound has given rise to the stockpiling of ricin by terrorist organizations and renegade governments like Sadaam Hussien's Iraq (Marshall 1997). As rescently as 1989, the Iraqis are known to have conducted tests on spreading ricin via air (Cowley and Rogers 1989).

Symptoms of ricin poisoning include burning of the mouth and throat, nausea, vomiting, severe stomach pains, diarrhea, excessive thirst, prostration, dullnesss of vision, convulsions, uremia and eventual death. As few as 4 seeds can be fatal if consumed by a small-framed adult (only 3 are fatal in children), and as mentioned earlier, 8 seeds mean certain death for any adult human (Hardin and Arena 1974). All parts of the plant are somewhat poisonous, however the seeds by far are the most toxic (Muenscher 1939).