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To: Eala
You asked: How about as a terror weapon?

You could use it as a terror weapon, but other things would be easier. For example, black mold can cause ergotism. Ever hear of the St Vitus dance epidemics in the middle ages? Ergot poisoning, with LSD type hallucinations and gangrene of arms and legs.

Castor beans can make ricin. Anthrax is in millions of barnyards. Histoplasmosis is common in chicken poop. Coccidiomycosis in the desert. If you want to cause cancer, just spray benzene (causes bladder cancer).

Quick trivia: When was the last bioterror attack on the US? (i.e. before Anthrax): answer, when an Oregon cult added germs to the local salad bar, aimiing to make enough people sick that they could steal the election. Originally, the epidemic was blamed on failure of hand washing in the restaurant staffs.

Also the Germans tried to send foot and mouth disease to the US in 1917.

Another trivia: A foodworker with open TB gave TB to 100 people in congress accidentally 20 years ago.

And then there is HIV: 50 percent of the first 1000 cases could be traced back to a handsome air steward.

So yes, it could cause a lot of headlines to terrorize people. In cambodia, people were terrified about yellow rain. But many of the deaths reported in the US medical literature blamed on yellow rain were probably a type of cardiomyopathy that is common in Orientals, causing sudden death in young healthy men. But since few MDs treated Orientals, they didn't recognize the syndrome.
25 posted on 03/27/2003 3:11:50 PM PST by LadyDoc (liberals only love politically correct poor people)
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To: LadyDoc
Ugh. Well, I asked so I deserve it.
31 posted on 03/27/2003 5:30:27 PM PST by Eala
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