Connecticut Delegation Reacts to Ricin Scare
WASHINGTON — Members of the Connecticut congressional delegation and several senators responded on Tuesday to the discovery of ricin, a poison found in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s mailroom Monday afternoon.
In a press conference at the Capitol, Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said that none of the workers who might have been exposed to the white powder had become ill, and that ricin is not contagious.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), whose office received a letter containing anthrax in late 2001, said, “This is going to take some time to put the pieces together.”
Capitol police said that all unopened mail would be removed from the Capitol complex within the next few days. Police said they have found no evidence that the ricin has spread through the Senate ventilation system as had the anthrax mailed to Daschle, then majority leader, and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.).
All three Senate office buildings were closed Tuesday and Senate hearings postponed.
But despite the closures, Congress remained in session and House meetings continued as scheduled.
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-5), said she attended a Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Bush’s proposed budget Tuesday afternoon and that her staff was in the office.
“It’s an unfortunate reality of working in Washington that it has become the target of such cowardly attacks,” Johnson said in a statement. “We’re doing everything possible to keep the nation’s Capitol open for business without jeopardizing people’s lives.”Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said in a statement, “Anyone — be they terrorists or criminals — who would use these types of toxins as weapons needs to [be] dealt with in the harshest fashion and swiftly brought to justice.”
Dr. Charles McKay, associate medical director of the Connecticut Poison Control Center , said that unlike anthrax, ricin cannot multiply and spread through the air.
He described ricin as a “protein structure” that prohibits cells in the body from creating proteins. While anthrax is an infectious agent that spreads bacteria through the body, ricin simply stops the cells from functioning, McKay said.
Ricin is most powerful when injected. McKay said that less than a milligram, which is smaller than a pencil point, would cause death in two to three days when injected directly into the body.
Symptoms of ricin exposure include weakness, diarrhea, low blood pressure and fever, McKay said. Victims injected with ricin “can end up with what looks like multiple organ failure,” he said.
But because ricin cannot multiply, it is “not very effective” as a large-scale biological weapon, he said. “It would take so much that it would be completely impractical,” to use in a terrorist attack, McKay said.
While there is no known antidote for ricin, McKay said that all previous known deaths have come from direct injection, not through inhalation or ingestion. It would take a much larger amount to kill someone through inhalation, McKay said. “If you ate an ounce it would probably kill you. But it would have to get into your system,” he said.
McKay said that his center has not changed any procedures and everyone working there is staying calm. “Hopefully everybody else is too,” McKay said.
A “powder-like” substance was also found Tuesday in a postal distribution center in Wallingford , Conn. , said William Gerrish, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health. The substance was still being tested at a facility in Hartford late Tuesday. Anthrax was found at the same Wallingford distribution center in 2001, and authorities suspect a 94-year-old woman died of anthrax after receiving mail processed at the center.
“Sadly our state previously had to deal with tragic consequences from anthrax attacks,” Dodd said, “and it goes without saying that my thoughts and prayers are with the workers there as they deal with these anxious moments.”
