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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPesticide found in food that killed 23 children in India
An initial forensic report has confirmed that the free school lunch that killed 23 children this week in Indias eastern state of Bihar was contaminated with a pesticide, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The children fell ill within minutes of eating a meal of rice and potato curry in their one-room school on Tuesday, vomiting and convulsing with agonising stomach cramps.
The deaths sparked protests in Bihar. The lunch was part of Indias Mid-Day Meal Scheme that covers 120 million children and aims to tackle malnutrition and encourage school attendance. It had already drawn widespread complaints over food safety.
The report found the meal was prepared with cooking oil that contained monocrotophos, an organophosphorus compound that is used as an agricultural pesticide, Ravindra Kumar, a senior police official, told reporters.
Police said on Friday they suspected the oil was kept in a container previously used to store the pesticide. They are still looking for the headmistress of the school, who fled after the deaths.
The children fell ill within minutes of eating a meal of rice and potato curry in their one-room school on Tuesday, vomiting and convulsing with agonising stomach cramps.
The deaths sparked protests in Bihar. The lunch was part of Indias Mid-Day Meal Scheme that covers 120 million children and aims to tackle malnutrition and encourage school attendance. It had already drawn widespread complaints over food safety.
The report found the meal was prepared with cooking oil that contained monocrotophos, an organophosphorus compound that is used as an agricultural pesticide, Ravindra Kumar, a senior police official, told reporters.
Police said on Friday they suspected the oil was kept in a container previously used to store the pesticide. They are still looking for the headmistress of the school, who fled after the deaths.
http://www.france24.com/en/20130720-pesticide-found-food-killed-23-school-children-india
Monocrotophos is an organophosphate insecticide. It is acutely toxic to birds and humans, and for that reason has been banned in the U.S. and many other countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocrotophos
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Pesticide found in food that killed 23 children in India (Original Post)
FarCenter
Jul 2013
OP
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)1. Ahhhhh, life in a country with lax regulations, zero enforcement,
and a largely uneducated public.
Sounds like another Libertarian Paradise.
Skittles
(153,164 posts)2. and we pimp off our jobs to India
JI7
(89,250 posts)4. they don't have lax regulations, but they are very corrupt when it comes to enforcement
people paying off officials to look the other way.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)3. it wasn't the food itself - the oil used to cook it was stored in old pesticide drums
according to the rest of the story