BOMBAY: The toll from mass food poisoning at a workers’ mess near Bombay has risen to 37 after five more people died over a week ago, doctors and officials said on Aug 13. At least 50 more were still in critical condition in the worst food poisoning case in the country’s history, they said. The dead and injured were among 120 people who complained of giddiness, aches and vomiting hours after they ate contaminated food at a canteen in the textile town of Bhiwandi, about 125 km (75 miles) north of Bombay. Doctors said medical tests had so far indicated the source of the poisoning could be the seeds of white “datura” or thorn apple, a poisonous weed that flowers during the monsoon. Earlier, state health secretary K.S. Baroi had said there were traces of white datura in some flour samples collected from the mess and tested in Bombay. “There are some claims that the poison is datura,” the chief minister of Maharashtra state, Manohar Joshi, told reporters. Bombay is the capital of Maharashtra. “But the cause of food poisoning has not yet been ascertained,” Joshi said, adding that blood samples were being analyzed in London. “It’s the biggest food poisoning tragedy that has ever occurred in this country.” He added that only those who ate “‘chappatis” or unleavened bread fell ill. Joshi said police were looking for seven cooks who went missing after the food poisoning outbreak. Police said they were also investigating possible rivalry among cheap eateries catering to poor textile workers, most of who are from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. They said the owner of the mess where the tragedy occurred refused to raise food prices as done by other eateries. Doctors at the city’s J.J. Hospital, where many of the victims are being treated, said they had administered antidotes for datura to some patients, but none of them had responded to the treatment.

“You would need a very large amount of datura to produce this scale of poisoning,” said R.D. Lele, an expert in nuclear medicine. “It is impractical to put such a lot in food.” Doctors said brain biopsies on nine of the dead could provide crucial evidence on the cause of the deaths. Experts have also requested help from the premier U.S. epidemiological investigators, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 21, 1996