What is ricin

If you think you've been exposed to ricin, get into fresh air and call or your local emergency number right away. Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste left over from processing castor beans. Castor beans are used to make castor oil. Ricin can potentially be used as a biological weapon. It can be turned into an aerosol and inhaled. It can also be ingested from poisoned food or a contaminated water supply or injected.

Signs and symptoms of ricin poisoning depend on whether a person inhales or ingests ricin. Inhaled ricin causes fever, chest tightness, cough and severe respiratory problems, including fluid buildup in the lungs pulmonary edema.

Ingested ricin causes intestinal bleeding and organ damage. The poison can kill within three days of exposure. Even a small amount of ricin may be fatal.

No widely available, reliable test exists to confirm exposure to ricin. There's no vaccine or antidote for ricin poisoning. What makes ricin so dangerous? Letter to Obama tests positive for ricin. Story highlights Ricin is a byproduct of the beans used to make castor oil A drop of ricin can kill, though death would take several days. If inhaled, injected or ingested, less than a pinpoint of ricin can kill a person within 36 to 48 hours due to the failure of the respiratory and circulatory systems.

The most important factor, it says, is getting the ricin off or out of the body quickly and providing medical care to reduce effects of poisoning, such as assisting in breathing or flushing a person's stomach. Ricin Fast Facts. Because ricin is a chemical poison, the illness it causes cannot be spread from person-to-person. However, contact with ricin-contaminated surfaces or people may transfer this poison and cause illness.

Ricin kills the cells in a person's body by preventing the cells from making the proteins they need. Specific effects of ricin poisoning depend on whether ricin was inhaled, swallowed, touched or injected. Inhalation: Within a few hours of inhaling significant amounts of ricin, the likely symptoms would be respiratory distress difficulty breathing , fever, cough, nausea, and tightness in the chest.

Heavy sweating may follow, as well as fluid building up in the lungs pulmonary edema. This would make breathing even more difficult, and the skin might turn blue. Finally, low blood pressure and respiratory failure may occur, leading to death. Ingestion: If someone swallows a significant amount of ricin, he or she would develop vomiting and diarrhea that may become bloody.

Severe dehydration may result, followed by low blood pressure. Other signs or symptoms may include hallucinations, seizures, and blood in the urine. Within several days, the person's liver, spleen, and kidneys might stop working, and the person could die.

Skin and Eye Contact: Ricin in powdered or mist form can cause redness and pain of the skin and of the eyes. Injection: Injection of a lethal amount of ricin first causes the muscles and lymph nodes near the injection site to fail. Eventually, the liver, kidneys and spleen stop working and there is massive bleeding from the stomach and intestines, resulting in death from multiple organ failure.

Death from ricin poisoning could take place within 36 to 72 hours of exposure. People who were not present where the ricin was found are not likely to have been exposed at levels high enough to negatively affect their health. No long-term direct effects are known to exist from ricin exposure that did not result in symptoms.

Following severe ricin poisoning, the damage done to vital organs may be permanent or have lasting effects. Although it is unknown whether these populations are at higher risk, the possibility of higher risk does exist. People who have existing illnesses of the respiratory or GI tract may have pre-existing tissue irritation or damage as a result of their illness. If this damaged or irritated tissue is exposed to ricin, the result may be further injury and greater absorption of the ricin toxin.

The information that exists on ricin poisoning in humans is extremely limited. Much of what we know about ricin poisoning comes from animal studies and only a few human cases. Nevertheless, enough information exists on ricin poisoning by ingestion swallowing to say that it is extremely unlikely that the onset of signs and symptoms of ricin poisoning by ingestion would occur more than 10 hours after exposure.

Much less information exists on ricin poisoning by inhalation breathing in ricin , but initial poisoning symptoms are very unlikely to begin more than 24 hours after exposure. There are several tests used to detect ricin, including tests for environmental samples of suspicious materials, and for clinical specimens from human body fluids. Some LRN laboratories can test clinical urine samples for the presence of ricinine, an indicator of ricin exposure.

The rapid tests indicate whether components of the castor bean are present in the environmental sample and whether ricin toxin is present. Another assay for environmental samples measures the activity of the ricin toxin, since ricin toxicity can be affected by several factors including temperature.

The toxin activity test tells officials whether the toxin is still dangerous. The presence of ricinine in urine helps to establish whether ricin exposure has occurred, and may help estimate the degree of exposure if the time of exposure is known.

The rapid detection tests used by the LRN can be completed within hours after receipt of samples. The toxin activity test takes about 48 hours to perform but the availability of cultured cells used in the test may delay testing.

For a clinical urine specimen, measurement of ricinine can be completed within several hours after the samples are received. A preliminary test result — such as a positive for ricin components — must be confirmed by a second LRN test, which detects ricin toxin.

The ricin toxin test is considered the best test for determining the presence of ricin. A positive result for ricin components can be used in public health decision making while officials wait for confirmatory results from the ricin toxin test. They may be updated as new information becomes available. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Questions and Answers About Ricin. Minus Related Pages.