Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 49
Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism:
TICs & TIMs
Unusual Agents of Historic Importance
Module One – Toxic Warfare: Looking Beyond Conventional Chemical Weapons
49
This course will address a number of toxins of historic importance. As we prepare for the
future and ponder the new and unthinkable, we also need to heed the lessons of the
past.
Ricin, actually militarized in the past, had the notoriety of being extremely potent and
toxic at a very small dose. Its actual use had been limited to cold war spy intrigues and
U.S. militia groups planning. Hence the surprise of finding ricin in the Senate Office
building in 2004. Its notoriety was clearly also known to terrorists and would-be terrorists.
If nothing else, the discovery of ricin spread fear and uncertainty.
Ricin is what is left over in the water-soluble “cake” after castor beans have the castor oil
expressed by a cold press process.
Ricin was found Feb 3, 2004 on an automatic mail sorter in a mailroom in the Dirksen
Senate Office Building. This closed several Senate offices for a few weeks for
decontamination.
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