Ricin

Tags

A potent protein toxin made from the waste left over from processing castor beans.

The castor plant, which is called Ricinus communis, is found throughout the world.

Ricin is fairly easy to extract. Worldwide a million tons of castor beans are processed

annually in the production of castor oil. The waste mash from this process is 5% ricin

by weight. The toxin (ricin) can be in the form of a powder, mist, pellet, or it can be

dissolved in water or weak acid. Ricin is quite stable and is not affected much by

extreme conditions such as very hot or very cold temperatures. Ricin is extremely toxic

by several routes of exposure. When inhaled as a small particle aerosol, this toxin can

produce pathologic changes within 8 hours and severe respiratory symptoms followed

by acute hypoxic (low oxygen) respiratory failure within 36-72 hours. When ingested,

ricin causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms followed by vascular collapse and

death. Signs and symptoms of ricin inhalation include the acute onset of fever, chest

tightness, cough, dyspnea, nausea, and arthralgia (joint pain) occurs 4 to 8 hours after

inhalational exposure. Airway necrosis and pulmonary capillary leak resulting in

pulmonary edema are likely to occur within 18-24 hours, followed by severe respiratory

distress and death from hypoxemia in 36-72 hours. Diagnosis is by antigen detection

(ELISA) in blood serum and respiratory secretions. Acute and convalescent sera

provide confirmation. Treatment is supportive. There is no vaccine or prophylactic

antitoxin. Use of a protective mask is currently the best protection against inhalation.

Ricin is not volatile. Decontamination should be done with soap and water.

Hypochlorite solutions also can inactivate ricin. Ricin's significance as a potential

biological warfare toxin relates in part to its wide availability. Ricin is feared to have a

high terrorist potential due to its ready availability, relative ease of extraction, and

notoriety via the media. The CDC has classified Ricin toxin as a Category B

bioterrorism agent.

MMLAP and other EU Projects

AsiaFluCap Health system analysis to support capacity development in response to the threat of pandemic influenza in Asia	BEWATER Making society an active participant in water adaptation to global change	CASI Public Participation in Developing a Common Framework for Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation	CIMULACT Engaging all of Europe in shaping a desirable and sustainable future	DARWIN Expect the unexpected and know how to respond
DRIVER Driving innovation in crisis management for European resilience	ECOM Effective communication in outbreak management: development of an evidence-based tool for Europe	EDEN Solutions to improve CBRNe resilience	EPISOUTH Network for Communicable Disease Control in Southern Europe and Mediterranean Countries	EPIWORK Developing the framework for an epidemic forecast infrastructure
EUPHARE Strengthening of the national surveillance system for communicable diseases	EUROHEP Surveillance of vaccine preventable hepatitis	EuroMOMO European monitoring of excess mortality for public health action	EURONHID European network for highly infectious disease	EUVAC.NET Dedicated surveillance network for surveillance and control of vaccine preventable diseases in the EU
FLUMODCONT Modelling the spread of pandemic influenza and strategies for its containment and mitigation	FLURESP Cost-effectiveness assessment of european influenza human pandemic alert and response strategies	GAP2 Bridging the gap between science, stakeholders and policy makers	HProImmune Promotion of immunization for health professionals in Europe	INPROFOOD Towards inclusive research programming for sustainable food innovations
JA-CHRODIS Addressing chronic diseases and healthy ageing across the life cycle	M-Eco Medical ecosystem – personalized event-based surveillance	MAPPING Studying the many and varied economic, social, legal and ethical aspects of the recent developments on the Internet, and their consequences for the individual and society at large	MARINA Get involved in the responsible marine research and innovation	PACITA Knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, mainly based upon the practices in Parliamentary Technology Assessment
PANDEM Assessment of the current pandemic preparedness and response tools, systems and practice at national, EU and global level in priority areas	PE2020 Analysis of innovative public engagement tools and instruments for dynamic governance in the field of Science in Society	PERARES Public Engagement with Research And Research Engagement with Society	PHEME Computing Veracity – the Fourth Challenge of Big Data	PREPARE Providing infrastructure, co-ordination and integration of existing clinical research networks on epidemics and pandemics
PROMOVAX Promote vaccinations among migrant population in Europe	R&DIALOGUE Creating mechanisms for effectively tackling the scientific and technology related challenges faced by society	RESPIRE Improve the quality of indoor air, keeping it free from radon	SATORI Improving respect of ethics principles and laws in research and innovation, in line with the evolution of technologies and societal concerns	SECURING CITIES AGAINST GLOBAL PANDEMICS Investigating how cities in the West securitise against global pandemics
SEiSMiC Creating a structured dialogue and mutual learning with citizens and urban actors by setting up National Networks in 10 countries across Europe	SIS CATALYST Identifying how children can be change agents in the Science and Society relationship	SYN-ENERGENE Establishing an open dialogue between stakeholders concerning synthetic biology’s potential benefits and risks	TELLME Transparent communication in Epidemics: Learning Lessons from experience, delivering effective Messages, providing Evidence

Newsletters

Select the newsletter(s) to which you want to subscribe or unsubscribe.

Contacts

Contacts

General inquiries: info@asset-scienceinsociety.eu

ASSET

Action plan on Science in Society related issues in Epidemics and Total pandemics

European Commission

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 612236.