Editing Ricin (section)

===History===
[[File:October 2003 ricin letter metal vial.jpg|thumb|A metal vial containing ricin from the [[2003 ricin letters]]]]
The United States investigated ricin for its military potential during [[World War I]].<ref name="Augerson2000">{{cite report | vauthors = Augerson WS, Spektor DM | publisher = United States Dept. of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense, National Defense Research Institute (U.S.) | date = 2000 | title = A Review of the Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses. | volume = 5 |series=Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents | work = Rand Corporation | doi = 10.7249/MR1018.5 | isbn = 978-0-8330-2680-4}}{{page needed|date=April 2013}}</ref> At that time it was being considered for use either as a toxic dust or as a coating for bullets and [[Shrapnel shell|shrapnel]]. The dust cloud concept could not be adequately developed, and the coated bullet/shrapnel concept would violate the [[Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)|Hague Convention of 1899]] (adopted in U.S. law at 32 [[United States Statutes at Large|Stat.]] 1903), specifically Annex §2, Ch.1, Article 23, stating "...&nbsp;it is especially prohibited&nbsp;... [t]o employ poison or poisoned arms".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/hague02.asp#art23 |title=The Avalon Project&nbsp;– Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague II); July 29, 1899 |publisher=Avalon.law.yale.edu |access-date=1 September 2010}}</ref>

During [[World War II]] the United States and Canada studied ricin in [[cluster bomb]]s.<ref name="Gupta_2009">{{cite book | vauthors = Gupta R | title = Handbook of Toxicology of Chemical Warfare Agents | publisher = Academic Press | location = Boston | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-0-12-374484-5 }}{{page needed|date=April 2013}}</ref> Though there were plans for mass production and several field trials with different bomblet concepts, the end conclusion was that it was no more economical than using [[phosgene]]. This conclusion was based on comparison of the final weapons, rather than ricin's toxicity ([[LD50|LCt<sub>50</sub>]] ~10&nbsp;mg/min·m<sup>3</sup>).{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} Ricin was given the [[chemical weapon designation|military symbol]] '''W''' or later '''WA'''.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}  Interest in it continued for a short period after World War II, but soon subsided when the [[Chemical Corps|US Army Chemical Corps]] began a program to weaponize [[sarin]].<ref name="Romano_2007">{{cite book | vauthors = Romano Jr JA, Salem M, Lukey BJ | title = Chemical Warfare Agents: Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics, Second Edition | publisher = CRC Press | year = 2007 | pages = 437 | isbn = 978-1-4200-4662-5 }}</ref>

The [[Soviet Union]] possessed weaponized ricin. The [[KGB]] developed weapons using ricin which were used outside the [[Soviet Bloc|Soviet bloc]], most famously in the [[Georgi Markov|Markov assassination]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummings |first1=Richard H. |title=Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950-1989 |date=22 April 2009 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-5300-9 |pages=67–70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kfl-8vMB0jEC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| last=Edwards | first=Richard | title=Poison-tip umbrella assassination of Georgi Markov reinvestigated | newspaper=The Telegraph | date=19 June 2008 | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2158765/Poison-tip-umbrella-assassination-of-Georgi-Markov-reinvestigated.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2158765/Poison-tip-umbrella-assassination-of-Georgi-Markov-reinvestigated.html |archive-date=12 January 2022|url-status=live }}</ref>