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  1. #1
    Senior Member MyAmerica's Avatar
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    Police: Man in critical condition after exposure to ricin

    Police: Man in critical condition after exposure to ricin

    LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- A man who stayed in a Las Vegas hotel room where ricin was found is in critical condition at a hospital, where he has been since mid-February, said a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department official.


    A man is in critical condition after exposure to ricin at a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel.

    Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the man called from the hotel asking for medical help on February 14, saying he was suffering from respiratory distress, and was transported to the hospital.

    Since he was gone from the extended-stay hotel and not paying his rent, managers began eviction procedures, Suey said at a news conference.

    A friend or relative of his who came to remove his belongings from the room found the ricin Thursday, she said. Watch Suey describe how the ricin was found »

    Tests confirm the substance found in the room was ricin, police said, but it remains a mystery how it got there. Suey said the man hospitalized was not a suspect and police don't know whether the ricin was his, or if he even knew it was there.

    The FBI said it was treating the matter as a criminal investigation and terrorism was not suspected.

    Pets were found in the room, Suey said. "Two of those pets are fine. One of the pets is deceased or was put down," she said.

    There was no evidence that the animal died from ricin exposure, Suey said. "The dog that was in there was without food and water for a week."

    She said the man was unable to speak to police, but a doctor at the briefing said he held out hope the man might recover enough to provide information.

    "Usually, if [ricin victims] survive the first three to five days, they usually do fine," said Dr. Lawrence Sands of the Southern Nevada Health District, emphasizing that he didn't know specifics of the case.

    As little as 500 micrograms of the toxin -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. Watch how ricin poisoning affects people »

    Suey said seven people -- including apartment management and police officers -- had been taken to the hospital to be checked out after the ricin was discovered. None showed signs of poisoning, and all had been released, she said.

    Symptoms of ricin poisoning can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.

    "We did have enough ricin to be of concern," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

    Ricin
    Poison made from castor beans
    Can be inhaled, swallowed or injected
    Prevents cells of a person's body making proteins, can cause death
    No antidote
    Used in cancer treatment and bone marrow transplants

    Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Lombardo said areas of the hotel exposed to the toxin have been decontaminated.

    The discovery of ricin alarms law-enforcement agencies because authorities in several countries have investigated links between suspect extremists and ricin.

    Ricin is a poison that can be made from waste left over after processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The toxin can come in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, according to the CDC. The agency also said the toxin works by getting inside the cells of a person's body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need.

    Lombardo said authorities found castor beans in the room and also powder in a small vial. He said ricin is not illegal to own, but it's illegal if processed to be used for poisoning someone.

    Ricin has limited medical uses -- it can be used to kill cancer cells and bone marrow transplants.

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    KLAS: Deadly poison found in Vegas hotel room
    CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said that while a small amount can kill somebody if injected, tons of it would be needed to use as a mass terrorism tool.

    Gupta said there are three ways of exposure to ricin: inhalation, ingestion or injections. If inhaled, people may develop fever, a cough, nausea, fluid in the lungs and organ failure.

    There is no specific test for exposure and no antidote once exposed, he said.


    There have been other reported cases involving ricin in the United States. In January 2005, the FBI arrested an Ocala, Florida, man with no known ties to terrorists or extremists after agents found ricin in the home he lives in with his mother.

    Ricin was found in February 2004 in the mailroom of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. The mailroom handles correspondence addressed to U.S. lawmakers.

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/29/ricin. ... pstoryview
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  2. #2
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the man called from the hotel asking for medical help on February 14, saying he was suffering from respiratory distress, and was transported to the hospital.
    How come the story didnt break until tuesday or wednesday of this week? At least that is when I 1st heard of it. But now they say it was Valentine's day that this person called for help. What took so long to report this?
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  3. #3
    Senior Member crazybird's Avatar
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    Nasty stuff.....
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  4. #4
    Senior Member MyAmerica's Avatar
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    butterbean wrote:
    But now they say it was Valentine's day that this person called for help. What took so long to report this?
    Wondered about that too.
    Didn't say how much was found and since as little as 500 micrograms of the toxin -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult............to be discovered, there had to be a significant amount of it.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member MyAmerica's Avatar
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    Guns, 'anarchist book' found with ricin By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer
    26 minutes ago



    LAS VEGAS - Firearms and an "anarchist type textbook" were found in the same motel room where several vials of the deadly toxin ricin was found, police said Friday.

    The room was most recently occupied by a 57-year-old 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 of any spread of the deadly substance beyond the several vials of powder found in a plastic bag in the man's room on 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.

    Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a press conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Lombardo did not give more information about the book or specify what kinds of weapons were found.

    A friend or relative of the sick man found the vials after going to the Extended Stay America motel, several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip, to retrieve his belongings, police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said.

    Tests by police 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, including 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 overnight.

    "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 Friday morning, and the motel has been open since then.

    Lombardo said precautionary tests were also done a room in the Excalibur hotel, where the friend or relative had been saying. He said they came back negative.

    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 was unconscious and unable to speak, Suey said, adding that he was not currently 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 about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

    Castor beans also were found in the man's room, officials said.

    An American Medical Response paramedic crew that took the man to the hospital about 11 a.m. Feb. 14 had no indication of ricin poisoning, AMR general manager John Wilson said.

    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 hospital. 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 police 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 whether he is a relative or a friend," she said.

    The manager had begun an eviction because the sick man hadn't paid his bill, and the friend or 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, and she did not attribute the death to ricin.

    Evans, of the Institute for Biosecurity, said that if ricin is inhaled, symptoms would include difficulty breathing, fever, cough and nausea. Injection would lead to vomiting and severe diarrhea. Eventually these symptoms would progress to seizures, hallucination, bloody urine and damage to the kidney, liver and spleen and death.

    Tom Obrig, an expert on ricin who teaches nephrology at the University of Virginia, said there have been about 700 reports over the years of people trying to commit suicide by eating castor beans.

    "Usually it doesn't work because it's not digested well," he said.

    For the most part, however, the toxin has more of a cloak-and-dagger reputation linked more closely to spies and assassins. He recalled one particularly famous murder in 1978 involving Georgi Ivanov Markov, a Bulgarian dissident in London.

    Markov "was standing on a corner waiting for a bus and some spy came along and injected a pellet in his leg from an umbrella," Obrig said. "The guy died three days later. It was traced back by Scotland Yard who figured the only thing potent enough to do that was ricin."

    ___

    Associated Press Staff writers Noaki Schwartz in Los Angeles and Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

    [urlhttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080301/ap_on_re_us/motel_hazardous_material;_ylt=As7e1LeuG5ivV1s5yKwd s31H2ocA] LINK[/url]
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  6. #6
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Suburban Utah home searched for ricin
    By DOUG ALDEN - Associated Press Writer

    Douglas C. Pizac/AP Photo
    A person dressed in a HAZMAT outfit works outside a home Sunday, March 2, 2008, in Riverton, Utah. FBI agents searched the house and two storage units linked to a man whose hospitalization led to the discovery of deadly ricin in a motel room he had occupied on the Las Vegas Strip.
    Suburban Utah home searched for ricin

    Ricin possibly found at Las Vegas motel

    RIVERTON, Utah --FBI agents wearing protective suits searched Sunday for the deadly poison ricin at a suburban home where a man possibly sickened by the deadly poison had once lived.

    Authorities believed they had found all of the ricin in several vials recovered Thursday from a Las Vegas motel where Roger Von Bergendorff had been staying, but they wanted to also check the home in Riverton, outside Salt Lake City.

    "We are taking all the precautions necessary to ensure public safety," FBI agent Timothy Fuhrman said at a news conference Sunday.

    Nearby homes were evacuated as FBI agents, covered from head to toe in full hazardous-material protection suits, meticulously searched the home belonging to Von Bergendorff's cousin Thomas Tholan.

    Von Bergendorff had been staying in the motel room where the ricin was found and has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. Von Bergendorff has been unconscious, so police and the FBI have not been able to question him about the ricin found in his room.

    Health officials are still trying to confirm whether Von Bergendorff's respiratory ailment stemmed from ricin exposure.

    The FBI got a search warrant for Tholan's home, where Von Bergendorff once lived. The search began Sunday morning and continued into the afternoon.

    Fuhrman said it would be a long process because agents were potentially dealing with such a toxic substance. He would not say whether the FBI suspected that Von Bergendorff had manufactured or stored ricin in the home or the rented storage units.

    Residents from three surrounding homes were allowed to return by Sunday afternoon, but the Tholan house was still closed off late in the day as the search continued. Authorities planned to decide soon whether to conclude the search Sunday night.

    Las Vegas police said that firearms, an "anarchist-type textbook" and castor beans, from which ricin is made, were found in the room where the poison was discovered. The book was tabbed at a spot containing information about ricin.

    Fuhrman said investigators were still trying to figure out why Von Bergendorff would have ricin but said there was no indication of any terrorist activity.

    Neighbors say Von Bergendorff lived in the Tholan home for about a year before moving to Las Vegas about a year ago.

    Police and health officials have tried to assure Las Vegas residents there is no public health threat. There was no indication of any spread of the deadly substance, they said.

    As little as 500 micrograms of ricin, about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The only legal use for ricin is cancer research.

    http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/616/story/369338.html
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  7. #7
    Senior Member MyAmerica's Avatar
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    Fuhrman said investigators were still trying to figure out why Von Bergendorff would have ricin but said there was no indication of any terrorist activity.
    ricin + firearms (pleural) + "anarchist type textbook" = DANGER

    People don't have items like these in motel rooms without some sort of plan in mind.

    Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
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  8. #8
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    Man Wakes From Ricin Coma

    Man Wakes From Ricin Coma
    FBI Questions Man About Poison

    POSTED: 12:27 pm PDT March 14, 2008
    UPDATED: 1:39 pm PDT March 14, 2008

    LAS VEGAS -- The central figure in a hotel ricin scare last month has emerged from a coma, FBI agents said Friday.

    Investigators found a vial of powdered ricin in Roger Von Bergendorff's room at the Extended Stay America in February, along with some castor beans. His friends were called in to remove his belongings after Von Bergendorff did not pay the bill and discovered the poison in a plastic bag.

    They then turned it over to hotel representatives, who contacted the FBI.

    FBI agents then did a complete search of the hotel as well as two other rooms connected with Von Bergendorff and his home in Utah. While some guns were discovered, officials did not find any other evidence of the poison at the locations.

    Von Bergendorff checked himself into a hospital on Feb. 14 for what officials called ricin poisoning. He has been in a comatose state ever since.

    While he has become cognizant, federal agents said, Von Bergendorff is still in critical condition. Police are questioning him at the hospital, trying to determine why he had so much of the poison.

    Von Bergendorff was an animal lover who recently had been beset by financial problems, acquaintences said. Records show he filed for bankruptcy in 2000 in California.

    Friends do not know why he would have the poison in his possession.

    In previous interviews, FBI agents stated do not think foul play is involved and said the case doesn't appear to be terrorism-related. While they say the poison is not a health threat to the population, authorities aren't sure why the vial of ricin was in the room and have started a full investigation into its creation and who brought it to Las Vegas.

    Ricin can be deadly if ingested, inhaled or injected into the body. Authorities said that two-tenths of a milligram is enough to kill a person. It has been used in some cancer research, but it has also been used in assassinations and turned up in the homes of suspected terrorists.

    Details in this story are still developing. Stay with FOX5 News and fox5vegas.com for continual updates.
    Copyright 2008 by KVVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.
    This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15597214/detail.html
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  9. #9
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Man says ricin belonged to his brother

    3/17/08

    SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The man at the center of a ricin scare at a Las Vegas motel says he never had any intention of hurting anyone with the deadly biological agent, his brother told The Associated Press.

    Roger Bergendorff, who finally regained consciousness last week after almost a month of hospitalization, possessed the ricin powder found in his motel room in February and believes he was contaminated by it, said Erich Bergendorff, who talked to his brother on the phone Sunday.

    "He just confirmed that it was not intended for anybody," Erich Bergendorff said in a telephone interview from his home north of San Diego in Escondido. "It was something that would be used for his own purposes, for self-defense."

    Roger Bergendorff, 57, was upgraded from critical to fair condition Monday at Spring Valley Medical Center.

    Erich Bergendorff said his brother was cooperating with investigators who questioned him at the hospital Friday. Las Vegas police referred questions to the FBI, which declined to comment Monday.

    Erich Bergendorff said Sunday's conversation was his first with Roger since he regained consciousness. He said his brother told him the ricin powder was easy to make but wasn't clear on whether he or someone else made it.

    "He did talk as though he just had it there; he was almost kind of casual about it," Erich Bergendorff said. "... He did mention the ricin and seemed to say something like, 'Gee, it sure worked on me.'"

    Ricin can be lethal in amounts the size of the head of a pin. It has no antidote and is legal only for cancer research.

    In court documents, police said "a large quantity" of ricin was in vials found in Roger Bergendorff's hotel room. He summoned an ambulance Feb. 14, complaining of respiratory distress, but the ricin wasn't discovered until a cousin went to the hotel to pick up his belongings two weeks later.

    Police say they also found firearms in the room, along with castor beans - from which ricin is derived - and four "anarchists cookbooks" in the room, marked at sections describing how to make ricin. But officials have said they have not found evidence in the motel room or elsewhere of contamination and have downplayed the possibility that Roger Bergendorff posed a threat.

    Authorities have refused to say whether they plan to charge Roger Bergendorff, who had been suffering from respiratory ailments and failing kidneys.

    Doctors have not formally diagnosed his condition, his family said. Hospital spokeswoman Naomi Jones declined to specify details, citing patient confidentiality rules.

    Experts have said his symptoms appeared consistent with ricin exposure, but the poison breaks down in the body within days, making it hard to trace.

    Ricin is categorized as a biological agent under the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which provides for the possibility of life in prison and unspecified fines for production, acquisition or possession of a biological agent, according to Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Justice Department.

    Mere possession for purposes other than "bona fide research" or "other peaceful purpose" carries the possibility of fines and up to 10 years in federal prison, Boyd said.

    Friends and family members described Bergendorff, an illustrator, as a loner who struggled to pay his bills while moving around California, Nevada and Utah with his beloved dog and cats.

    He had lived in recent months at the Extended Stay America motel several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip while waiting for a freelance job contract.

    Erich Bergendorff said his brother was deeply saddened by the death of their older brother in January but insisted Roger Bergendorff had not been suicidal.

    "He did say he felt very empty with his loss," said Erich Bergendorff. He added that his brother was lonely in the hospital and newly distraught after learning that his dog was euthanized after the Humane Society found her starving and without water in his motel room.

    http://tiny.cc/UCM7j
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  10. #10
    Senior Member MyAmerica's Avatar
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    "It was something that would be used for his own purposes, for self-defense."
    Ricin for SELF-defense-----I don't think so.

    Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
    Benjamin Franklin
    "Distrust and caution are the parents of security."
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