(Greenville-AP) Nov. 20, 2003 - Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are watching for ricin a month after authorities discovered the deadly poison at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport mail center.

The Atlanta-based health agency is studying reports from the nation's poison control centers. Doctor Martin Belson with the CDC says the October 15th incident in Greenville was the first time the poison was found in a public facility in the United States.

A report Thursday says that in the two weeks after the poison was found, CDC officials reviewed 97,000 poison calls nationwide, looking for anything that might be an outbreak of the toxin. No ricin was found.

Belson says health departments and emergency rooms also were told to watch for possible ricin-related illnesses.

A vial of the potentially deadly poison was found in an envelope at the Greenville Spartanburg International Airport's mail center. Officials would not say to whom the envelope was addressed or where it was postmarked. No one was hurt by the poison.

A letter in the envelope contained a warning that large amounts of ricin would be dumped into drinking reservoirs around the country if the federal government did not change new trucking rules.

The rules scheduled to start January 4th are intended to increase safety by making truckers rest more. Drivers now must get eight hours rest and can work 15 hours, ten of which can be on the road; one more hour on the road, one less hour work and two more hours of rest.

Ricin can be deadly in very small doses. When inhaled or ingested, fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness and low blood pressure can occur within eight hours. Death can come between 36 and 72 hours after exposure. There is no antidote.

posted 7:56am by Chris Rees