Ricin for bio-fuel? Surely not.

SPIGOT does not want to sound alarmist but Reuters reports that the Mocambican Government is considering using Ricin as a base for bio-fuels. No doubt these worthies are aware that the first diesel engine was designed to run on castor oil, which comes from the same plant as Ricin, but do they also know the following about ricin?

• Ricin is a poison that can be made from the waste left over from processing castor beans. It can be in the form of a powder, a mist, or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or acid. Ricin is part of the waste “mash”produced when castor oil is made. People can breathe in ricin mist or powder and be poisoned. Ricin can also get into water or food and then be swallowed. Pellets of ricin, or ricin dissolved in a liquid, can be injected into people’s bodies. Depending on injection or inhalation, as little as 500 micrograms of ricin kills. 500 micrograms is the size of a pinhead. In 1978, Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian living in London, died when stabbed by a ricin-tipped brolly
• Ricin was found in Al Qaeda caves in Afghanistan.

Spigot's law of unintended consequences applies....