Liberty's Blog

Substance in Austin May Not be Ricin

The report of Ricin in a college students roll of quarters sounded a little strange to me. The Intapundant claimed, "There usually turns out to be less to these stories than it seems at first report" Turns out that Glenn might be right. The MSM reported the the story when it was scary, but so far they haven't done much to follow it up. Fortunately bloggers and the local media is following up. The PrairiePundit points us to the Austin Statesman.

A mysterious whitish-brown powder found in a roll of quarters in a dormitory room on the University of Texas campus might not be the poison ricin after all.

A preliminary test by the Texas Department of State Health Services laboratory in Austin returned a positive result for the potentially fatal substance, prompting an evacuation of the Moore-Hill residence hall, an investigation by the FBI and worries of a link to terrorism.

But three subsequent tests at the same lab came up negative.

In addition, none of the people who might have been exposed — including the student with the quarters, her mother, her roommate and their residence hall assistant — has symptoms of ricin poisoning. The symptoms, which typically include breathing difficulty, cough, fever, nausea and tightess in the chest, usually develop within hours of exposure, health officials said.

"I'm pretty confident it's not ricin," Mike Elliott, senior district commander for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, said Saturday. "The state lab tends to be more presumptive in telling you what it might be."

It could take a day or two before additional tests at federal laboratories, which have more sophisticated equipment, give conclusive results, Elliott said.

Sounds like good news.

posted by Liberty @ 9:20 AM