Toxic chemical ricin found in letter to President Obama

Barack Obama, President, US.

WASHINGTON DC, US: A letter addressed to President Obama that field-tested positive for the poison ricin was received at the remote White House mail screening facility on 16 April 2013, according to law enforcement officials. The facility routinely identifies letters or parcels that require secondary screening or scientific testing before delivery. The separate Senate mail-handling facility also received a suspicious letter potentially laced with ricin addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, postmarked from Memphis. Testing on the first letter, addressed to Republican Wicker, is incomplete but expected to be finished by 18 April 2013 afternoon.

The Centre for Disease Control defines ricin as a poison that comes from castor beans and can be found in a powder, a mist, a pellet or dissolved in water. Field tests are often unreliable, and a false positive for ricin occurs at least once each year. The material has been sent to an accredited laboratory for further analysis. Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin. Those tests are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48 hours.

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