realclearscience | The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly
century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples
of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly
stored hazardous materials.
The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities
after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the
1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been
stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH's campus.
Friday, the NIH said in different facilities, it found small amounts
of five improperly stored "select agents," pathogens that must be
registered and kept only in certain highly regulated laboratories. All
were found in sealed and intact containers, with no evidence that they
posed a safety risk to anyone in the labs or surrounding areas, the
agency said in a memo to employees. All have been destroyed.
They included a bottle of ricin, a highly poisonous toxin, found in a
box with microbes dating from 1914 and thought to be 85 to 100 years
old, the memo said. The bottle was labeled as originally containing 5
grams, although NIH doesn't know how much was left.
Ricin has legitimate research uses, the NIH said, but was not studied in this lab.
Also discovered were samples listing pathogens that cause botulism,
plague, tularemia and a rare tropical infection called melioidosis.
