Members of a hazardous materials crew Thursday searched a room at the Extended Stay America motel in Las Vegas where the poison ricin was found. Police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity. A pinprick of ricin is enough to kill.
(Steve Marcus/Reuters)
Las Vegas police find ricin in motel
Probe ties toxin to guest who's fighting for life
Members of a hazardous materials crew Thursday searched a room at the Extended Stay America motel in Las Vegas where the poison ricin was found. Police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity. A pinprick of ricin is enough to kill.
(Steve Marcus/Reuters)
LAS VEGAS - Authorities yesterday confirmed that the deadly toxin ricin was found in a motel room most recently occupied by a man who has been in critical condition with breathing problems at a hospital for more than two weeks.
Las Vegas police said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity and no indication that the deadly substance spread beyond the several vials of powder that were found in a plastic bag in the man's room Thursday. But what the ricin was doing there remained a mystery.
A pinprick of ricin is enough to kill.
"Six to eight hours, you're going to start showing symptoms," said Greg Evans, director of the Institute for Biosecurity at Saint Louis University in Missouri.
A friend or relative of the sick man found the vials after going to the
Tests by Police Department homeland security officers, the Nevada National Guard, and a laboratory in Las Vegas came back positive for ricin, she said. A cleanup of the motel has been completed, she added.
Seven people - the man who found the ricin, the manager, two other motel employees, and three police officers - were decontaminated at the scene and taken to hospitals for examination, but none have shown any signs of being affected by ricin, Suey said. All were released.
"There is no information to lead us to believe that this is the result of any terrorist activity or related to any possible terrorist activity," Suey said. "We don't have any reason to believe any of it left the property."
Police cordoned off the hotel and told residents to stay in their rooms. The cordon was lifted early yesterday morning, and the motel has been open since then. Suey said the manufacture of ricin is a crime, but it was not clear the substance found belonged to the man, who was hospitalized in critical condition Feb. 14 after summoning an ambulance to the motel and complaining of respiratory distress.
The man, believed to be in his 40s or 50s, was unconscious and unable to speak, Suey said, adding that he was not considered a suspect.
"We don't know an awful lot about him," Suey said. "We don't even know that it was him that was in possession of the ricin." She said she could not say how much ricin was in the vials.
Cancer research is the only legitimate reason for anyone to have ricin, Evans said.
Ricin is made from processing castor beans and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or what can fit on the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Castor beans were also found in the man's room, officials said.
An American Medical Response paramedic crew that took the man to the hospital at about 11 a.m. Feb. 14 had no indication of ricin poisoning, said John Wilson, the service's general manager. Wilson would not say whether the two paramedics who handled the call entered the man's room, but said neither have shown symptoms of exposure.
Naomi Jones, spokeswoman for Spring Valley Hospital, said the patient was in critical condition when he arrived at the medical center. She said Las Vegas police contacted the hospital Wednesday about a possible ricin exposure investigation.
"The investigation started two days ago, that's when we began cooperating," Jones said. "The patient who has been exposed is not contagious to anyone else, as ricin has to be injected, ingested, or inhaled."
Police refused to comment on whether the hospital was contacted Wednesday, a day before law enforcement officials said the ricin was found. Evans said the fact that the man suffered 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."
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.
"If it was aerosolized in a confined space, then it certainly could harm dozens of people," he said.
Police said they had spent 12 hours containing and cleaning up the site. "My understanding is cleanup has been done," said Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District. "There should not be a threat to anybody at this time."
The motel room had been unoccupied since the man was hospitalized. Someone who knew the sick man found the ricin in the room and brought it to the apartment manager, Suey said. "He claimed to be a relative. We haven't confirmed that yet."
The manager had begun an eviction because the sick man had not paid his bill, and the man who identified himself as a relative had gone to retrieve his items, she said.
Suey said there were several pets in the room when officers arrived. A dog was found dead, but the animal had gone at least a week without food or water, Suey said. She did not attribute the death to ricin.
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