NewsOne: A letter containing a suspicious substance and addressed to President Barack Obama has been intercepted at a White House screening facility, reports Politico.com.

Though the Secret Service have not speculated on what the substance could be, the letter arrives one day after it was reported that  Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) received a letter that contained the toxic poison ricin.

According to Spokesman Edwin Donovan, the letter was detected at a off-site screening facility under the protection of the Secret Service:

“This facility routinely identifies letters or parcels that require secondary screening or scientific testing before delivery,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “The Secret Service White House mail screening facility is a remote facility, not located near the White House complex, that all White House mail goes through.”

U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI have joined to investigate the letter sent to President Obama and the letter sent to Wicker has been sent to Maryland for further testing.

Various media reports claim that the letter addressed to the POTUS did indeed contain the poisonous substance ricin, but Secret Service has not confirmed that.

As reported by TheHill.com, the CDC defines ricin as follows:

“Ricin works by getting inside the cells of a person’s body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need. Without the proteins, cells die. Eventually this is harmful to the whole body, and death may occur.”

Source: http://newsone.com/2391584/obama-letter-suspicious-substance-ricin/