Capitol Hill Ricin Investigation Continues

Three Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill remained closed after a white powder determined to be ricin was found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist Monday.

Tests are being conducted on the ricin found by a young worker in Frist's fourth-floor mailroom in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Authorities want to know if it was sufficiently potent and in a powder fine enough to kill people.

Meanwhile, unopened mail is being collected throughout the Capitol complex by investigators searching for more letters that could be contaminated with the deadly poison ricin.

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House Speaker Dennis Hastert said, "It's serious enough that they're picking up everybody's mail."

No illnesses had been reported by late Tuesday, said Dr. John Eisold, the Capitol physician. Tests of air filters showed the chemical had not circulated through the buildings' ventilation systems, said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. Health experts expressed optimism that no one has come down with any ill effects from the toxin, but dozens of Senate workers are being monitored and health officials urged Senate staff to watch for swiftly developing fever, coughs or fluid in the lungs over the next two or three days.

When inhaled in sufficient quantities or injected, ricin can be fatal, and there is no known vaccine or cure.

This attack happened a little more than two years since Congress grappled with another potentially lethal toxin, anthrax.

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