[Red Badger]

Do you know how much ricin constitutes a fatal dose?.............

[EEDUDE]

500 micrograms. 0.5 mg.

[pissant]

Yep. thats’ why it would be easy to screw up and die. Not as dramatic as the accidental early detonations of suicide vests, I’ll grant you

[sbMKE]

Do you know how much ricin constitutes a fatal dose?.............

Pretty much anything more than none at all.

[Diogenesis]

I wonder if the list LD50s require a tertiary care hospital?

CDI Fact Sheet: Ricin
"Ricin is less toxic when introduced orally, because the chance for absorption is poorer as it travels through the digestive tract.
This has been studied in relation to beans, seeds, and ricin itself. The LD 50 percent (or lethal dose responsible for killing 50 percent of the test population) is 30 mcg/kg.
The fatality rates for ingestion of castor beans and seeds, as indicated by past studies are quite low ranging from 1.9 percent and 6 percent."

"Ricin consists of two distinct protein chains
(almost 30 kDa each) that are linked to each other by a disulfide bond:
* Ricin A is an N-glycoside hydrolase that targets and depurinates
an adenine base in the 28S rRNA molecule of the ribosome, resulting in an inhibition of protein biosynthesis.
* Ricin B is a lectin that binds galactosyl residues and is important in assisting ricin A's entry into a cell by binding with a cell surface component.
Many plants such as barley have the A chain but not the B chain. Since people do not get sick from eating large amounts of such products,
ricin A is of extremely low toxicity as long as the B chain is not present."

[ravingnutter]

From the CDC Fact Sheet:

It would take a deliberate act to make ricin and use it to poison people. Accidental exposure to ricin is highly unlikely.

People can breathe in ricin mist or powder and be poisoned.

Ricin can also get into water or food and then be swallowed.

Pellets of ricin, or ricin dissolved in a liquid, can be injected into people’s bodies.

Depending on the route of exposure (such as injection or inhalation), as little as 500 micrograms of ricin could be enough to kill an adult. A 500-microgram dose of ricin would be about the size of the head of a pin. A greater amount would likely be needed to kill people if the ricin were swallowed.

In 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian writer and journalist who was living in London, died after he was attacked by a man with an umbrella. The umbrella had been rigged to inject a poison ricin pellet under Markov’s skin.

Some reports have indicated that ricin may have been used in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and that quantities of ricin were found in Al Qaeda caves in Afghanistan.

Ricin poisoning is not contagious. It cannot be spread from person to person through casual contact.

More at:

CDC Fact Sheet

[COBOL2Java]

Toxicity

Ricin is poisonous if inhaled, injected, or ingested, acting as a toxin by the inhibition of protein synthesis. Ricin is 6000 times more toxic than cyanide and 12000 times more poisonous than rattlesnake venom by weight. While there is no known antidote, the US military has developed a vaccine.[2] Symptomatic and supportive treatment is available. Long term organ damage is likely in survivors. Ricin causes severe diarrhea and victims can die of shock. (See abrin).

Deaths caused by ingestion of seeds are rare.[3] Eight beans are considered toxic for an adult.[4] A solution of saline and glucose has been used to treat ricin overdose. [5] The case experience is not as negative as popular perception would indicate.[6]

[Tigercap]

Sorry if posted already...

From FOXNews.com:

“Ricin is made from the waste left over from processing castor beans and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the CDC.”

[djf]

Not much at all. It is far, far more poisonous than cyanide.
I would imagine that if there’s enough to be able to see it with the naked eye, that’s more than enough to kill you.

[LibertarianLiz]

Do you know how much ricin constitutes a fatal dose?.............

According to the news I was getting from FOX this afternoon; the amount would fit on the head of a pin.

[Kozak]

The LD50 ( meaning 1/2 of subjects will die at this dose) is 30 micrograms/kg for ingested ricin.

[grey_whiskers]

From Wikipedia:

"Ricin has an average lethal dose in humans of 0.2 milligrams (1/5,000th of a gram)[citation needed], though the CDC gives a possible minimum figure of 0.5 milligrams if exposure is from injection or inhalation.[1]"

NO Cheers, unfortunately.