Editing Ricin (section)

===Control===
In spite of ricin's extreme [[toxicity]] and utility as an agent of chemical/biological warfare, production of the toxin is difficult to limit. The [[castor bean]] plant from which ricin is derived is a common [[ornamental plant|ornamental]] and can be grown at home without any special care.

Under both the 1972 [[Biological Weapons Convention]] and the 1997 [[Chemical Weapons Convention]], ricin is listed as a [[List of Schedule 1 substances (CWC)|schedule 1 controlled substance]]. Despite this, more than {{convert|1|e6MT|ST|abbr=off}} of castor beans are processed each year, and approximately 5% of the total is rendered into a waste containing negligible concentrations of undenatured ricin toxin.<ref name="http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicagents/ricin.html">{{cite web|url=http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxicagents/ricin.html |title=Cornell University Department of Animal Science |publisher=Ansci.cornell.edu |access-date=7 May 2012}}</ref>

Ricin is several orders of magnitude less toxic than [[botulinum]] or [[tetanus toxin]], but the latter are harder to come by. Compared to botulinum or [[anthrax]] as [[biological weapon]]s or [[chemical weapon]]s, the quantity of ricin required to achieve LD<sub>50</sub> over a large geographic area is significantly more than an agent such as anthrax (tons of ricin vs. only kilogram quantities of anthrax).<ref name="pmid10458957">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kortepeter MG, Parker GW | title = Potential biological weapons threats | journal = Emerging Infectious Diseases | volume = 5 | issue = 4 | pages = 523–527 | year = 1999 | pmid = 10458957 | pmc = 2627749 | doi = 10.3201/eid0504.990411 }}</ref> Ricin is easy to produce, but is not as practical or likely to cause as many casualties as other agents.<ref name="Schep"/> Ricin is easily denatured by temperatures over {{convert|80|C|F}} meaning many methods of deploying ricin would generate enough heat to denature it.<ref name="Levy-2011" /> Once deployed, an area contaminated with ricin remains dangerous until the bonds between chain A or B have been broken, a process that takes two or three days.<ref name="Harkup-2015" /> In contrast, anthrax [[endospore|spore]]s may remain lethal for decades. [[Jan van Aken (Politician)|Jan van Aken]], a German expert on biological weapons, explained in a report for [[The Sunshine Project]] that [[Al Qaeda]]'s experiments with ricin suggest their inability to produce [[botulinum toxin|botulinum]] or anthrax.<ref name="vanaken2001">{{cite web | vauthors = van Aken J | year = 2001 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130108235747/http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/bk/bk7en.html | archive-date = 8 January 2013 | url = http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/bk/bk7en.html | title = Biological Weapons: Research Projects of the German Army | work = Backgrounder Series No. 7 | publisher = [[The Sunshine Project]] | url-status = dead }}</ref>