By Ronron
March 14, 2005
Cebu – Five days after a massive food poisoning killed 27 grade-schoolers and downed over a hundred others in a remote village in Mabini town, Bohol, health experts have finally ruled Monday that it was pesticide that caused the tragedy.
In a statement released yesterday, the Philippine health department “pointed to severe dehydration secondary to pesticide poisoning,” and not cyanide in cassava, as the main cause of the March 9 incident.
“There were significant findings of pesticide poisoning among the children. This poisoning could have been just an acute event or an acute event on top of a chronic exposure,” the statement read, although it did not specify the kind of pesticide.
Toxicologists from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) went to Bohol last week to gather blood and vomitus samples from confined patients following President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s order on health experts and the police to determine the cause of the mass poisoning.
The experts from the UP Poison Management and Control Center who performed the tests found no evidence of cyanide poisoning among the 49 students tested for cyanide in the blood, the statement added.
Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit explained in the same statement that it was possible the food (deep-fried caramelized cassava) “was prepared in an environment that was highly toxic and contaminated with chemical poisons and bacteria.”
Students of the San Jose Elementary School (SJES) in Barangay San Jose, Mabini admitted of having bought deep-fried caramelized cassava from ambulant vendor Anna Luyong, 68, during their recess in the morning of March 9 before they experienced abdominal pains, vomiting, and loose bowel movement (LBM). Some of them also bought ball-shaped cassava cake from another vendor, Victoria Hibaya, 59, but only a few complained of stomach disorders.
Of the 276 students of SJES, 27 died and 99 others were confined in four different hospitals around the province. Luyong, and five other adults were also brought to the hospitals for treatment after they were able to eat the same food.
Investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Region VII over the weekend were able to get an insecticide from Luyong’s small hut where she prepared the food items she sold. NBI-Bohol Chief Renato Mandawe described the insecticide as powdery in appearance, almost like flour.
“We conducted a research on that kind of insecticide and we learned that it is very toxic. The lethal dose (of the insecticide) to kill an adult is only four grams. How much more if it’s taken in by children? And the symptoms that the victims showed were the same that we found out in our research,” said Mandawe.
Mandawe said they will await the result of the laboratory tests that the NBI Head Office in Manila will conduct on the specimen they have gathered from two of the 27 corpses to be able to confirm if that same insecticide is indeed the culprit.
Similar tests, he added, are also being conducted on samples of cassava that the NBI team have uprooted from Luyong’s backyard to counter-check their negative findings as to the presence of cyanide in the corpses that they have autopsied.
The results are expected to come out today (Tuesday) or Wednesday.
The NBI team conducted an autopsy on two different bodies last March 11 and 12. They collected specimen from the intestines, particularly food items inside the bodies that were not yet completely digested.
Meanwhile, all 27 bodies have already been buried at the San Jose Public Cemetery. And out of the 104 confined patients, only 20 are now remaining at the hospitals./DMS
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