Three Senate Buildings Close, Tierney Urges Constituents to use other forms of Communication, After White Powder is Found
WASHINGTON -Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) said the deadly poison found in the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was the result of a ” deplorable act.”
The white powder discovered Monday in Frist’s Dirksen Senate Office Building mailroom has been identified as an “active” form of ricin, a poison derived from the waste of castor beans that have been turned into castor oil, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Dirksen, Hart and Russell Senate Office Buildings have been closed, and mail service to both the Senate and the House suspended.
“All constituents wishing to contact my office in the next few days are encouraged to use e-mail or fax if possible,” Tierney said in a statement. “I appreciate the Capitol Police’s efforts to protect the safety of postal workers, members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers, and hope that the circumstances surrounding this deplorable act will be resolved swiftly.”
According to the CDC, ricin can come “in the form of a powder, a mist or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid..
“Ricin works by getting inside the cells of a person’s body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need,” the CDC reported. “Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur.”
No one who was exposed to the substance showed any symptoms as of late Tuesday. There is no antidote for ricin. The CDC said symptoms, including fevers, respiratory problems, vomiting and diarrhea, would show up within eight hours of inhaling ricin or within six hours of ingesting it.
The ricin incident is reminiscent of the anthrax scare in late 2001, when two letters containing anthrax were sent to the offices of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
Rose Ann Soloway, associate director of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, said that ricin and anthrax are two entirely different kinds of poisons. Anthrax is an infectious agent, which can but is not likely to be spread from person to person. Ricin, which is not an infectious agent, cannot be spread this way.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon Frist said that 16 people had been decontaminated the night before.
Daschle, now minority leader, said it was important to emphasize that the work of the government will go on. “We still don’t have all the answers, so we ask everyone to be patient,” he added.
