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By Category: Agents & Toxins

Bracelets made from deadly seeds recalled

(Telegraph.co.uk) It contains the toxin abrin, a controlled substance under the Terrorism Act that if swallowed can kill in doses of just 3 micrograms. It is related to ricin, the chemical warfare agent. People who have bought the bracelets are being urged to bag them …

Biological Weapons Under Review at the BTWC

(Stimson News) The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC) is currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland, through December 22.  At this meeting, countries are discussing a range of issues concerning the BTWC, which is one of two treaties that govern efforts by the international community to prevent an attack with a  Read More »

Scientists solve ricin riddle using new technology

(Cordis News) A protein that controls how the deadly plant poison and bioweapon ricin kills has finally been identified by a team of Austrian researchers in a new study. With a combination of stem cell biology and modern screening methods, the team were able to get …

The Risk of Engineering a Highly Transmissible H5N1 Virus

(Editorial by Thomas V. Inglesby, Anita Cicero, and D. A. Henderson) Over the past 8 years, H5N1 avian influenza has sickened 571 people, killing 59% of them. To give some perspective, the fatality rate of the virus that caused the 1918 Great Pandemic was 2%, and that pandemic killed on the order of 50 million  Read More »

Pentagon Analyzing Chem, Bio Defense Programs

(GSN Daily News) The U.S. Defense Department in August initiated a “strategic review and analysis” of its defense operations against biological and chemical weapons threats, Defense News quoted a high-level Pentagon official as saying on Thursday (see GSN, Sept. 29, 2010). “We needed to relook the whole” of the department’s activities on biological and chemical  Read More »

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