Pesticides were detected in all survivors of the Taitung food poisoning

Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) — Final test results from a food poisoning incident that killed three people and hospitalized nine in Taitung County last week found traces of toxic pesticides in samples from all but one of the victims, Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.

The CDC confirmed that terbufos, a dangerous chemical compound found in some pesticides, was detected in all nine hospitalized patients and in the bodies of two of the fatalities.

The body of the other person who is believed to have died in the same food poisoning incident was not examined because no possible samples were preserved, according to the CDC.

Various authorities are investigating the incident, which began on September 17, when an 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) died after eating homemade millet dumplings.

That same evening, about 30 relatives and friends gathered at Tseng's house in Binmao Village, a subdistrict of Jinfeng Township, to mourn her death, serving leftover dumplings from the deceased's kitchen.

Two of the mourners died and nine were hospitalized in the early hours of the next day. Doctors at Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital suspected that neurotoxin poisoning had caused the outbreak.

Investigators initially suspected that the snail meat in the millet dumplings might contain pesticides. However, rapid tests conducted by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) on September 19 found no abnormalities in the snail meat samples from Tseng's kitchen.

However, TFDA tests found terbufos, a chemical compound found in some pesticides that can be potentially fatal to humans, in the millet dumplings' “food waste” samples.

TFDA deputy director-general Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said a 60-kilogram adult could die from ingesting around 96 milligrams of terbufos. The highly toxic organophosphate insecticide can cause symptoms such as miosis (constricted pupils), excessive salivation, vomiting, garlic-like bad breath and coma.

The TFDA later ruled out accidental poisoning from pesticide residues. Lin told reporters on Saturday that the food poisoning was “not the result of ordinary farming practices.”

The next day, Taiwan's Taitung District Prosecutor's Office said it was investigating the origin of the millet and the manufacturing process of the deadly dumplings after discovering up to 1,323 milligrams of terbufos per kilogram in a mortar found in Tseng's home.

At a routine press conference on Tuesday, CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) said terbufos was detected in the blood or urine of all 11 people tested and that the results had been confirmed by forensic scientists at National Taiwan University and Taipei Veterans General Hospital.

The spokesman said two of the survivors of the poisoning incident were still in hospital, while the other seven had already been discharged.