Ricin Poisoning

• Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste left over from processing castor beans.



• It can be in the form of a powder, a mist, or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.



• It is a stable substance. For example, it is not affected much by extreme conditions such as very hot or very cold temperatures.

• Castor beans are processed throughout the world to make castor oil. Ricin is part of the waste "mash" produced when castor oil is made.



• Ricin has some potential medical uses, such as bone marrow transplants and cancer treatment (to kill cancer cells).

• 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.

Source: MedicineNet.com
http://www.medicinenet.com/ricin/article.htm