Alex Claiborne
Period 5
For centuries people had known that the castor oil seeds were poisonous through ingesting them. However the seeds were not refined until the late 1800’s and it wasn’t thoroughly researched until the Great War. Since it’s refinement ricin has become an issue because of its global impact on the world through assassinations. For years many people have advocated for the use of ricin for warfare and assassinations. A small dose causes death in humans, it is odorless tasteless and undetectable. It is extremely dangerous and easy to make.
Ricin is extracted from the castor oil plant beans. It is then purified. Ricin is classified as a lectin toxin. The NFPA diamond to the right shows that ricin is a class 4 health hazard and …show more content…
In the CRS report for congress on ricin they state that, “The United States is a party to both the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention”. This means that the United States has promised to stop production of the weapon. Also the department of health has listed ricin as a chemical that is illegal to, own, manufacture, or use in the United States. according to a scientist named Doug Hanson, who formerly worked in the Bio Weapon development in the military's R&D department “Ricin is not a living bioagent and, therefore, is not contagious, so the likelihood of it being spread too far beyond the initial attack site is small. It is not volatile so, in an aerosol attack, the chance of a secondary aerosolization”. Hanson goes on to describe that several researchers claim to have made claims to have created a vaccine for mice and ricin. With the non effectiveness of ricin in warfare because of its makeup and a possible upcoming vaccine for ricin approaching many think that it is not suitable for chemical warfare and political manipulation on a large
Period 5
For centuries people had known that the castor oil seeds were poisonous through ingesting them. However the seeds were not refined until the late 1800’s and it wasn’t thoroughly researched until the Great War. Since it’s refinement ricin has become an issue because of its global impact on the world through assassinations. For years many people have advocated for the use of ricin for warfare and assassinations. A small dose causes death in humans, it is odorless tasteless and undetectable. It is extremely dangerous and easy to make.
Ricin is extracted from the castor oil plant beans. It is then purified. Ricin is classified as a lectin toxin. The NFPA diamond to the right shows that ricin is a class 4 health hazard and …show more content…
In the CRS report for congress on ricin they state that, “The United States is a party to both the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention”. This means that the United States has promised to stop production of the weapon. Also the department of health has listed ricin as a chemical that is illegal to, own, manufacture, or use in the United States. according to a scientist named Doug Hanson, who formerly worked in the Bio Weapon development in the military's R&D department “Ricin is not a living bioagent and, therefore, is not contagious, so the likelihood of it being spread too far beyond the initial attack site is small. It is not volatile so, in an aerosol attack, the chance of a secondary aerosolization”. Hanson goes on to describe that several researchers claim to have made claims to have created a vaccine for mice and ricin. With the non effectiveness of ricin in warfare because of its makeup and a possible upcoming vaccine for ricin approaching many think that it is not suitable for chemical warfare and political manipulation on a large