Biosecurity

Inactivation of Ricin Toxin by Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields Including Evidences from Cell and Animal Toxicity

Now, the ricin toxin is increasingly being considered by terrorist groups to carry out bio-chemical attacks on high profile individuals and buildings. For example, in 2003, a terrorist threatened to contaminate the water supply using ricin if his demands failed to be satisfied in South Carolina, US10. One year after, a letter with ricin powder addressed to the White House was discovered in the mailroom serving US Senator office in South Carolina10. On April 16th and 17th, 2013, two letters were mailed out from Memphis, Tennessee, US. The first one was addressed to the office of Mississippi Republican Senator, and the second one was mailed to the President of the United States11.