TOXIN FOUND IN SENATE MAIL ROOM

Abstract

THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS OF October 2001 have had one salutary effect: Congress was better prepared for the recent ricin scare that harmed no one and only temporarily closed three Senate office buildings. On Feb. 2, a white powder was discovered in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's Dirksen building mail room. Analyses of the powder identified the potentially lethal poison ricin, aplant protein. Officials have not released information on the purity, formulation—whether other chemicals were added—or particle size of the ricin used, says Jonathan B. Tucker, abioweapons expert with the Monterey Institute. The fact that no one has become ill suggests that the material was crude and not particularly dangerous. Unlike anthrax, ricin not infectious and is not a good mass casualty agent, says David R. Franz, a senior biological scientist at Midwest Research Institute and former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). It makes a good terror weapon, ...