Ricin Found in Roll of Quarters | Update: Or Not

Feb. 26 Update:  The powder may not be ricin after all. Some tests have come back positive, some negative, and some inconclusive.

I think we need a new way to test for ricin.

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From USA Today:

A University of Texas student found a substance that has tested positive for ricin, a potentially deadly poison, in a roll of quarters she was using to do laundry in her dormitory, officials said. The student and her roommate were being treated for potential exposure to the poison, although neither has exhibited symptoms, said Dr. Theresa Spalding of UT Student Health Services.

From Homeland Security:

Ricin – Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste leftover from processing castor beans. It can be inhaled, ingested or injected, and works by getting inside the cells of a person’s body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need. Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually, this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur.

The student said the quarters were in her dorm room for months and had been given to her by her mother.  Assuming this was a deliberate act (and assuming the young lady's mom doesn't roll her own coins), it sounds like the ricin was intended for a bank (or a bank's customers), rather than a college campus.

While potentially clever, tainting a bunch of change rolls doesn't seem to be an ideal dispersal method.  I can envision it traveling a fair bit if, say, a grocery store picked up a bunch of rolls of riciny quarters for their registers and handed out a little touch of toxin with each customer's change.  But as noted above, ricin has to be ingested, inhaled, or injected to be harmful, which would only pose a risk to this guy.

Further:
CDC Facts About Ricin
DHS Guidance for Response to Ricin Delivered by Mail

Elsewhere:
Expose the Left
Generation Why? has tons of pictures from the scene.
Michelle Malkin has a round up of blogger coverage.
Junkyard Blog is tracking a Virginia-based ricin case.