Reply #47: "...suggested he was exposed to a powder fine enough to float in the air."

[Ian David]

Greg Evans, director of the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University in Missouri, said the man's respiratory illness suggested he was exposed to a powder fine enough to float in the air.

"If he went to the hospital with difficulty breathing, he actually inhaled it," Evans said. "For some reason, he opened the vial and it must have been aerosolized."

I suppose it's possible he made it and exposed himself to it by accident.

Or, he found it, opened it to see what it was, maybe smelled it.


Multiple vials would probably contain enough ricin to sicken many people if it was spread, for example, around a buffet table or sprayed in a closed room.


Thanks, Associated Press, for putting that suggestion out there.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080301/ap_on_re_us/motel_hazardous_material