Minutus

To answer some of the concerns about this new scare tactic, I am forwarding this
article reprinted from the Village Voice, NYC
Weapon of the Week
by George Smith
Ricin, the Unproven Poison
January 15 - 21, 2003
et's test your war-on-terror IQ. What is said to be the nastiest poison in the hands of the Osama bin Laden brigade? Ricin. Now for the trick part. How many people have been killed by ricin in the last five years? Zero!
In terms of numbers-based risk assessment-not fear-mongering-ricin is insignificant. Despite inescapable news of Al Qaeda stooges spotted with traces of it in London, an urgent stateside warning from the FBI, and testimony that in the past it has been in the arsenal of Saddam Hussein, ricin has never been employed as a weapon of mass destruction in the way that our national corps of armchair bioterror experts insist that it can be.

How does one poison a crowd with ricin? No one knows. Yet it is exquisitely dangerous because it is said all one has to do is grind up some castor beans at home.

While many poisons common to college chemistry labs could be used by terrorists, ricin remains the celebrity. For instance, nails and ball bearings carried by Palestinian suicide bombers have sometimes been coated with the less potent warfarin, yet the rat poison has never received the same notice.

Ricin mania probably came about due to its well-publicized use as the weapon Bulgarian secret police used to kill dissident Georgi Markov during the Cold War. In fact, the news mythology surrounding it has made it impossible to determine what drives terrorist desire for the material-first-hand training in toxicology or media gossip that it's a weapon of mass destruction.

In any case, a few thousandths of a gram of ricin can be bought from Sigma Chemical of St. Louis for anywhere from about $60 to $200, depending on formulation. Yet the purest form is still not so cheap to buy nor so easy to render that it's amenable to mass production by a handful of twentysomething Al Qaeda men of indeterminate scientific skill.

Nevertheless, in ricin fear-exaggerated or not-there is money and professional gain. A search for the poison on Google this week turned up an ad for the mother of all gas masks, enjoying prime real estate on the list of results. And even though this meets a merely theoretical need, a University of Texas Southwestern Medical School researcher has produced a ricin vaccine in mice. This achievement, it is said, would lead to more trials using aerosolized ricin-in effect, the development of a chemical weapon to protect us from the same thing we're supposed to be very worried about.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

As Homeopaths, it would be helpful for us to know the signs and symptoms
of Ricin poisoning in order to come up with solutions. So, here they
are: (From the CDC...)

RICIN

SUMMARY

Signs and Symptoms:

Weakness, fever, cough and pulmonary edema occur 18-24 hours after
inhalation exposure, followed by severe respiratory distress and death
from hypoxemia in 36-72 hours.

Diagnosis:

Signs and symptoms noted above in large numbers of geographically
clustered patients could suggest an exposure to aerosolized ricin. The
rapid time course to severe symptoms and death would be unusual for
infectious agents. Laboratory findings are nonspecific but similar to
other pulmonary irritants which cause pulmonary edema. Specific serum
ELISA is available. Acute and convalescent sera should be collected.

Treatment:

Management is supportive and should include treatment for pulmonary
edema. Gastric decontamination measures should be used if ingested.

Prophylaxis:

There is currently no vaccine or prophylactic antitoxin available for
human use, although immunization appears promising in animal models.
Use of the protective mask is currently the best protection against
inhalation.

Isolation and Decontamination:

Standard Precautions for healthcare workers. Secondary aerosols should
generally not be a danger to health care providers. Weak hypochlorite
solutions (0.1% sodium hypochlorite) and/or soap and water can
decontaminate skin surfaces.

OVERVIEW

Ricin is a potent protein toxin derived from the beans of the castor
plant (Ricinus communis). Castor beans are ubiquitous worldwide, and
the toxin is fairly easily produced. Ricin is therefore a potentially
widely available toxin. When inhaled as a small particle aerosol, this
toxin may produce pathologic changes within 8 hours and severe
respiratory symptoms followed by acute hypoxic respiratory failure in
36-72 hours.

When ingested, ricin causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms followed by
vascular collapse and death. This toxin may also cause disseminated
intravascular coagulation, microcirculatory failure and multiple organ
failure if given intravenously in laboratory animals.

HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE

Ricin's significance as a potential biological warfare toxin relates in
part to its wide availability. Worldwide, one million tons of castor
beans are processed annually in the production of castor oil; the waste
mash from this process is five percent ricin by weight. The toxin is
also quite stable and extremely toxic by several routes of exposure,
including the respiratory route. Ricin is said to have been used in the
assassination of Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov in London in 1978.
Markov was attacked with a specially engineered weapon disguised as an
umbrella which implanted a ricin-containing pellet into his body.

TOXIN CHARACTERISTICS

Ricin is actually made up of two hemagglutinins and two toxins. The
toxins, RCL III and RCL IV, are dimers of about 66,000 daltons molecular
weight. The toxins are made up of two polypeptide chains, an A chain
and a B chain, which are joined by a disulfide bond. Ricin can be
produced relatively easily and inexpensively in large quantities in a
fairly low technology setting. It is of marginal toxicity in terms of
its LED50 in comparison to toxins such as botulinum and SEB
(incapacitating dose), so an enemy would have to produce it in larger
quantities to cover a significant area on the battlefield. This might
limit large-scale use of ricin by an adversary. Ricin can be prepared
in liquid or crystalline form, or it can be lyophilized to make it a dry
powder. It could be disseminated by an enemy as an aerosol, or it could
be used as a sabotage, assassination, or terrorist weapon.

MECHANISM OF TOXICITY

Ricin is very toxic to cells. It acts by inhibiting protein synthesis.
The B chain binds to cell surface receptors and the toxin-receptor
complex is taken into the cell; the A chain has endonuclease activity
and extremely low concentrations will inhibit protein synthesis. In
rodents, the histopathology of aerosol exposure is characterized by
necrotizing airway lesions causing tracheitis, bronchitis,
bronchiolitis, and interstitial pneumonia with perivascular and alveolar
edema. There is a latent period of 8 hours post-inhalation exposure
before histologic lesions are observed in animal models. In rodents,
ricin is more toxic by the aerosol route than by other routes of exposure.

There is little toxicity data in humans. The exact cause of morbidity
and mortality would be dependent upon the route of exposure. Aerosol
exposure in man would be expected to cause acute lung injury, pulmonary
edema secondary to increased capillary permeability, and eventual acute
hypoxic respiratory failure.

CLINICAL FEATURES

The clinical picture in intoxicated victims would depend on the route of
exposure. After aerosol exposure, signs and symptoms would depend on
the dose inhaled. Accidental sublethal aerosol exposures which occurred
in humans in the 1940s were characterized by onset of the following
symptoms in four to eight hours:

fever, chest tightness, cough, dyspnea, nausea, and arthralgias. The
onset of profuse sweating some hours later was commonly the sign of
termination of most of the symptoms. Although lethal human aerosol
exposures have not been described, the severe pathophysiologic changes
seen in the animal respiratory tract, including necrosis and severe
alveolar flooding, are probably sufficient to cause death if enough
toxin is inhaled. Time to death in experimental animals is dose
dependent, occurring 36-72 hours post inhalation exposure. Humans would
be expected to develop severe lung inflammation with progressive cough,
dyspnea, cyanosis and pulmonary edema.

By other routes of exposure, ricin is not a direct lung irritant;
however, intravascular injection can cause minimal pulmonary
perivascular edema due to vascular endothelial injury. Ingestion causes
gastrointestinal hemorrhage with hepatic, splenic, and renal necrosis.
Intramuscular administration causes severe local necrosis of muscle and
regional lymph nodes with moderate visceral organ involvement.

DIAGNOSIS

An attack with aerosolized ricin would be, as with many biological
warfare agents, primarily diagnosed by the clinical and epidemiological
setting. Acute lung injury affecting a large number of cases in a war
zone (where a BW attack could occur) should raise suspicion of an attack
with a pulmonary irritant such as ricin, although other pulmonary
pathogens could present with similar signs and symptoms. Other
biological threats, such as SEB, Q fever, tularemia, plague, and some
chemical warfare agents like phosgene, need to be included in a
differential diagnosis. Ricin intoxication would be expected to
progress despite treatment with antibiotics, as opposed to an infectious
process.
There would be no mediastinitis as seen with inhalation anthrax. SEB
would be different in that most patients would not progress to a
life-threatening syndrome but would tend to plateau clinically.
Phosgene-induced acute lung injury would progress much faster than that
caused by ricin.

Additional supportive clinical or diagnostic features after aerosol
exposure to ricin may include the following: bilateral infiltrates on
chest radiographs, arterial hypoxemia, neutrophilic leukocytosis, and a
bronchial aspirate rich in protein compared to plasma which is
characteristic of high permeability pulmonary edema. Specific ELISA
testing on serum or immunohistochemical techniques for direct tissue
analysis may be used where available to confirm the diagnosis. Ricin is
an extremely immunogenic toxin, and acute as well as convalescent sera
should be obtained from survivors for measurement of antibody response.

MEDICAL MANAGEMENT

Management of ricin-intoxicated patients again depends on the route of
exposure. Patients with pulmonary intoxication are managed by
appropriate treatment for pulmonary edema and respiratory support as
indicated. Gastrointestinal intoxication is best managed by vigorous
gastric decontamination with superactivated charcoal, followed by use of
cathartics such as magnesium citrate. Volume replacement of GI fluid
losses is important. In percutaneous exposures, treatment would be
primarily supportive.

PROPHYLAXIS

The protective mask is effective in preventing aerosol exposure.
Although a vaccine is not currently available, candidate vaccines are
under development which are immunogenic and confer protection against
lethal aerosol exposures in animals. Prophylaxis with such a vaccine is
the most promising defense against a biological warfare attack with ricin.

Sara wrote:

And Tanya wrote:
forwarding this
[snip]
in the

You know, there's another angle we can take on all this.

I personally agree with the Village Voice article, but it's pertinent to ask
"why ricin?" and "why now?". It's often been observed during provings that
national and international events have a way of keying into the issues of
the proving -- somehow there's synchronicity operating -- and in the way
that patients exhibit symptoms calling for a remedy because that is the
state they're in, it's possible that we do this collectively as a society
too and for quite a while now I've been looking at acute epidemics with this
in mind.

I can't help but note that through December and January, there has been a
two-stranded acute "virus" manifesting in the area where I live (which is in
the UK where the ricin scare started). One starts with a fever which turns
into a protracted cough featuring a lot of pulmonary congestion which is
very hard to shake off (it can last 6 weeks or so). The other is a more
short-lived (24 hours in children, 3-4 days in adults) gastrointestinal
complaint featuring colicky pains, vomiting, diarrhoea and weakness verging
on collapse.

Back to the CDC summary:
[snip]

Coincidence? Synchronicity? Here are the symptoms recorded for Ricinus
communis in the Complete 4.5 ...

MIND; INDIFFERENCE, apathy (315) *
MOUTH; APHTHAE (155) *
STOMACH; APPETITE; wanting (335) *
STOMACH; BAR, laid over stomach (3) *
STOMACH; PAIN; General (375) *
STOMACH; PAIN; General; extending; umbilicus, to (15) *
STOMACH; SOFTENING of mucous membrane (25) *
STOMACH; VOMITING; General (439) *
STOMACH; VOMITING; General; diarrhea; during (119) *
ABDOMEN; CATARRH (38) *
ABDOMEN; CATARRH; gastroduodenal (19) *
ABDOMEN; CONSTRICTION (110) *
ABDOMEN; ILEUS, obstruction of intestines (67) *
ABDOMEN; ILEUS, obstruction of intestines; impaction (10) *
ABDOMEN; INFLAMMATION, peritonitis, enteritis (292) *
ABDOMEN; NOISES (400) *
ABDOMEN; NOISES; rumbling (392) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; General (634) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; General; diarrhea; agg.; during, colic (226) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; General; pressure; agg. (61) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; General; liver (216) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; General; liver; colic, gallstones (77) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; cramping, griping (461) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; cramping, griping; stool; during (108) *
ABDOMEN; PAIN; cramping, griping; stool; during; diarrhea (50) *
RECTUM; CHOLERA (142) *
RECTUM; CHOLERA; infantum (102) *
RECTUM; CHOLERA; morbus (51) **
RECTUM; CONSTIPATION (464) *
RECTUM; CONSTIPATION; colic, cramps, with (35) *
RECTUM; CONSTIPATION; colic, cramps, with; stool, during (30) *
RECTUM; CONSTIPATION; ineffectual urging and straining (185) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA (444) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; catarrhal (4) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; children, in (93) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; chronic (89) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; dentition, during (56) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; indigestion, from (3) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; painless (112) *
RECTUM; DIARRHEA; weather; hot, in (65) *
RECTUM; DYSENTERY (162) *
RECTUM; INFLAMMATION (85) *
RECTUM; PAIN; tenesmus (258) *
RECTUM; PAIN; tenesmus; dysentery; during (22) *
RECTUM; URGING, desire (297) *
STOOL; BALLS, like (47) *
STOOL; BALLS, like; small (6) *
STOOL; COLOR; yellow (179) *
STOOL; MUCOUS, slimy (221) *
STOOL; ODOR; offensive (179) *
STOOL; PAINLESS (66) *
STOOL; PASTY, papescent (168) *
STOOL; WATERY (264) *
STOOL; WATERY; rice water, like (27) *
URINE; ALBUMINOUS (218) *
CHEST; MILK; absent (62) **
CHEST; MILK; increased, too profuse (42) *
CHEST; MILK; suppressed (41) *
SLEEP; SLEEPINESS (575) *
CHILL; CHILLINESS (289) *
CHILL; CHILLINESS; stool; during (22) *
CHILL; STOOL; during (55) *
SKIN; DISCOLORATION; yellow, jaundice, icterus, etc. (174) *
GENERALITIES; MIDNIGHT; agg.; after (159) *
GENERALITIES; MIDNIGHT; agg.; after; two am. (54) *
GENERALITIES; ANEMIA (227) *
GENERALITIES; COLLAPSE (121) *
GENERALITIES; COLLAPSE; diarrhea, after (12) *
GENERALITIES; COLLAPSE; vomiting; during (3) *
GENERALITIES; COLLAPSE; vomiting; after (5) *
GENERALITIES; CONSTRICTION; external, sensation of (168) *
GENERALITIES; CONVULSIONS (429) *
GENERALITIES; DISCOLORATION; blackness of external parts, gangrene (109) *
GENERALITIES; EMACIATION (294) *
GENERALITIES; PAIN; radiating (19) *
GENERALITIES; PULSE; frequent, accelerated, elevated, exalted, fast,
innumerable, rapid (434) *
GENERALITIES; PULSE; imperceptible (115) *
GENERALITIES; PULSE; imperceptible; almost (64) **
GENERALITIES; PULSE; small (238) *
GENERALITIES; PULSE; weak (276) *
GENERALITIES; WEAKNESS, enervation, exhaustion, prostration, infirmity (759)
*
GENERALITIES; WEAKNESS, enervation, exhaustion, prostration, infirmity;
diarrhea, from (85) **

Regards
Wendy