Unanswered Questions At University Of Texas After Ricin Scare
HARRIS: Ah, the Mardi Gras festival. Oh, live pictures! I didn't know we'd see those.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, we were looking at them a little bit earlier.</s>HARRIS: This morning?</s>NGUYEN: There's still people on the streets...</s>HARRIS: How did I miss that?</s>NGUYEN: At 6:30 in the morning. They probably haven't gone to sleep.</s>HARRIS: Look at all the trash trucks there in the middle of the show.</s>NGUYEN: They're trying to get business done...</s>HARRIS: And there needs to be...</s>NGUYEN: ... among the partiers.</s>HARRIS: We will take you to New Orleans a little bit later, perhaps. We'll see. Welcome, everyone, to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back. I'm Tony Harris.</s>NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. We'll have that story in just a moment. But first, we want to take you to see what the morning's headlines are all about this morning, because we have a lot to tell you about -- Tony.</s>HARRIS: Here's what's happening right now in the news. Early tests show the deadly poison ricin has been found inside a dormitory at the University of Texas Austin. A student found the powder and a preliminary investigation is underway. Police say the dorm was sanitized and the students were evacuated. The "Daily Texan" newspaper reports a student discovered the powder after opening a roll of quarters from an out of town bank, the school says. There have been no reports of symptoms among the dorm's 390 students.</s>NGUYEN: An al Qaeda group claims responsibility for yesterday's failed attack on a major oil processing plant in Saudi Arabia. Now, the claim was posted on an Arabic language Web site. Saudi authorities say they repelled the attempted car bombing by firing on two cars packed with explosives. In Bangladesh, authorities say at least 18 people are dead, 50 seriously injured and hundreds are trapped after a six story building collapsed. The building housed a garment factory. The army is leading the rescue effort there. And in Iraq, attacks on a funeral procession leave at least one security officer dead. It is one in the series of violent episodes since Wednesday's bombing of a Shiite mosque near Samarra. Eleven bodies have been found to date in Baghdad. In Abara, 11 family members believed to be Shia were killed when gunmen stormed the home.</s>HARRIS: Filipino authorities are trying to restore calm today, with a state of emergency order. This after security forces say they stopped a plot yesterday to overthrow President Gloria Arroyo. The alleged coup was timed to coincide with demonstrations marking the 20th anniversary of a revolution that ousted former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Grammy award winning singer Sheryl Crow is recovering from breast cancer surgery and her planned North American tour set for next month is on hold. The 44-year-old underwent breast cancer surgery on Wednesday. Doctors say her prognosis is excellent.</s>NGUYEN: Well, we are in hot pursuit this morning of a developing story out of Austin, Texas. Powder believed to be the poison ricin found in a dorm at the University of Texas. Dr. Robert Geller is a toxicologist at Emory University right here in Atlanta. He joins us by phone to explain just how dangerous ricin is. Good morning to you, doctor.</s>DR. ROBERT GELLER, TOXICOLOGIST, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Good morning.</s>NGUYEN: First of all, we want to talk about how ricin is formed. Now, this is something that you have to make, correct?</s>GELLER: Ricin is made from castor beans, that are used for many other purposes. We usually think of castor beans as a source of castor oil, but which does not contain toxin, just to reassure your listeners and viewers. But one of the other things you can get from them is the product ricin.</s>NGUYEN: But this is not a substance that you could just happen to come in contact with? This has to be made?</s>GELLER: Correct.</s>NGUYEN: Got you. All right, now let's move on to what we know about the situation and maybe you could shed some light on how dangerous this is to the people who might have been exposed to it. What we know from the "Daily Texan," which is a newspaper there at the University of Texas Austin, is that this powder was discovered by two students after opening a roll of quarters. Now, the powder fell out onto the student's hands, which were washed immediately after that. So, that being the case, I mean with this being so deadly, powder falling onto someone's hands, is that enough to do the trick? Or does it have to be something that has to penetrate the skin for it to be deadly?</s>GELLER: Ricin does not cross the skin by itself. It has to either be inhaled or swallowed or get in your eyes or be injected.</s>NGUYEN: I see. OK. So -- and let's talk about the dangers of ricin, because should this have been inhaled by chance -- well, let me ask you this. What are the chances of it being inhaled if it fell out on the hands? Is that a possibility?</s>GELLER: It's possible, but unlikely. Also, Betty, remember that the particles have to be small enough to get into the lungs. Just getting into your -- becoming airborne isn't enough, because if the particles are very large, they'll be filtered out, the same way that we don't inhale popcorn, because the popcorns, the pieces of popcorn are much too big to get past your nose. Big particles don't get past your nose.</s>NGUYEN: So what we really need to understand is really how big of chunks of this ricin these were that was discovered in that dorm. OK, so that being the case, let's get to the worst case scenario, though. Should these two students have come in contact with it and it had penetrated in some way, what are the symptoms?</s>GELLER: Symptoms initially show up in the digestive system. You get vomiting and diarrhea and abdominal cramps. And then if the poisoning is severe, symptoms can include the lungs, the heart, the liver and the kidneys. And ultimately people have died from ricin.</s>NGUYEN: How quickly do they show up?</s>GELLER: The symptoms usually show up within eight to 12 hours. They're usually delayed a little bit. And given the high risk, if a life-threatening dose is inhaled, obviously people would rather be safe than be sorry. And...</s>NGUYEN: So this was found on Thursday. At this point, someone should know, right, if, indeed, they have the symptoms?</s>GELLER: I think if anyone had -- if this happened on Thursday and this is Saturday morning, I would expect that anyone who is going to get sick probably already has from that exposure.</s>NGUYEN: All right, and, quickly, one last thing. And this is something that drew a question with me. Preliminary tests show that it's ricin. But, again, those are preliminary tests. Will final tests perhaps show something different?</s>GELLER: Absolutely. It's very likely, as a matter of fact, that the...</s>NGUYEN: Why is that?</s>GELLER: The reason for having preliminary tests is you do something that is not totally specific but it gets done faster, the need to try to help people and to act cautiously and to be sure that we have done the right thing. I think that most people would rather be safe than be sorry. And so the question of well, is it consistent with ricin is a different question than is it really ricin?</s>NGUYEN: Well, we will be following it and see what those final test results show. But that is a very good point. Dr. Geller, a toxicologist at Emory's School of Medicine, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.</s>GELLER: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Still to come, six months after Hurricane Katrina, people on the Gulf Coast are still trying to rebuild their lives. This weekend, though, it's party time. There's live pictures again, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: The party keeps going and going and going, until Tuesday.</s>HARRIS: Yes. We're talking about Mardi Gras in New Orleans all morning long, as the biggest street party rages on. We'll look at what this year's Fat Tuesday means to the city and its people. We're back with more CNN SATURDAY MORNING.