Ted Cruz, however, turned out to be a false alarm. The Houston Fire Department evacuated the floor in a Texas high-rise where Cruz's officers are located but later said tests on the powdery substance there were negative for the poison.
Weaponizing ricin to attack politicians is not new. More: Letters sent to Pentagon, White House being tested for toxins. More: French government says it foiled terror attack; 2 brothers held. Ricin is a poison from the husks of castor beans, which are the seeds from the castor oil plant commonly found in nature. Castor oil, a strong laxative, is made by removing the husks and crushing the seeds, which have several other medicinal and manufacturing uses as well.
Ricin is part of the waste produced when these products are made. Weapons-grade ricin is produced in tiny particles that can be inhaled.
The smaller the particles the more deadly the poison. It can be in the form of a powder, a mist or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid. Unintentional exposure to ricin is highly unlikely, but chewing and swallowing castor beans can release ricin capable of causing injury, the U.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Ricin breaches human cells, preventing them from making the proteins they need. Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually this debilitates the entire body, and death may occur.
It would take a "deliberate act" to make ricin that poisons people, the CDC says. This can last for up to a week. The patient can die of shock and multiple organ failure. If you ingest the protein, treatment can usually reverse the symptoms and patients will survive, though they may suffer long-term organ damage. A man was poisoned with ricin in Las Vegas in February of and fell in to a coma for more than a month. The Bulgarian writer Markov first showed a fever, was admitted to the hospital, and died three days later.
How is it treated: Treatment basically tries to minimize the effects of the symptoms of the poison. This could include ventilation to help breathing, giving fluids to help stave off dehydration, and giving medication to stop seizures and raise blood pressure.
The U. S and U. Researchers have also been trying to develop a vaccine for it. Ricin is not all bad. Some researchers have been trying to use the toxin to kill cancer cells in the body. That is possible because the protein can be linked to a cancer-cell-specific antibody, which can go through the body without hurting normal cells. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.
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