Potentially deadly poison found in University of Texas dorm

Because people with ricin poisoning develop symptoms within a few hours of exposure, university officials were confident all the students would be fine, said Dr. Theresa Spalding of the university student health services.

Symptoms can include difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea, sweating, severe vomiting, and dehydration.

The episode was being investigated by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and the campus police. The FBI is conducting further tests, FBI spokesman Rene Salinas said.

''There is nothing to lead us to believe that it is in fact a terrorist act," he said. ''There is no link to any terrorism."

Officials said the roll of quarters had been in the students' room at the Moore-Hill dormitory for several months. The dormitory was sanitized and inspected, and students were cleared to return, the university said.

The white powder appeared when Heinbaug spilled the coins out of a coin wrapper onto her dorm room desk, Spalding said. The roll of coins was one of two given to the student by her mother, said campus police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon.

Ricin is extracted from castor beans and can be added to food or water, injected or sprayed as an aerosol. It can be in the form of a powder, mist, pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.

Toxicologists say ricin can be made easily in an ordinary kitchen.

Once a person has been exposed to ricin, the poison can prevent cells from making proteins, causing the cells to die and eventually impairing the whole body.

In 2005, an Algerian man, Kamel Bourgass, whom officials said was trained by Al Qaeda, was convicted in a plot to spread ricin throughout streets in Britain.

In New York, meanwhile, a drum maker who became infected with anthrax after inhaling spores from raw animal hides remained in serious condition yesterday as officials again sought to reassure the public there was no public health risk.

The condition of Vado Diomande, 44, was a change from Wednesday, when officials said he was breathing on his own and in relatively good shape for someone exposed to anthrax.