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By Lin Hui-chin, Kayleigh Madjar and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter,
with staff writers and CNA
Three people had died and nine were hospitalized as of yesterday morning after eating millet dumplings that might have contained toxic pesticides.
On Tuesday evening, after consuming millet dumplings she had made earlier, a woman surnamed Tseng (曾) in Taitung County’s Jinfong Township (金峰) developed convulsions and was taken to Mackay Memorial Hospital Taitung Branch, where she died.
Later that evening, about 30 friends and family gathered to pay their respects, with some of them eating the same millet dumplings, which contained snails, bamboo shoots and taro.
Photo copied by Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
Twelve of the attendees began seeking medical attention starting at about 3am for vomiting and convulsions.
Six of them lost consciousness on the way to a hospital, and by 7am, two had died and nine were in hospitals receiving treatment.
As many people exhibited the same symptoms, family members suspected it might have been food poisoning and sent the remaining millet dumplings and other food to a hospital for testing.
Tseng emitted a strange smell when she was admitted at about 9pm, Mackay Memorial Hospital Taitung Branch emergency room director Liu En-jui (劉恩睿) told reporters.
Liu said he asked the family if it might have been food poisoning, but they said it was unlikely and suspected it was an age-related illness.
Six more people came to the Mackay Hospital branch throughout the night and two of them exhibited the same smell, causing doctors to suspect food poisoning, he said.
It appeared to be a neurotoxin, potentially an organophosphate used in pesticides or another type found naturally in plants, he said, adding that those affected had constricted pupils and were trembling, with body stiffness and secretions from the mouth and nose.
Taitung County police yesterday morning visited the village where the woman had lived and questioned the man who had collected the snails.
County health officials have also visited Tseng’s family and hospitals to gather samples and the remaining dumplings.
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said that a CDC epidemiologist and a Taipei Veterans General Hospital toxicologist were yesterday afternoon to join the Taitung Public Health Bureau’s investigation.
Taiwan Medical University Hospital Department of Forensic Medicine and the Taiwan Poison Control Center at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital were testing specimens from the deceased to identify the cause of death, Lo said.
Investigators were focused on toxins and not infectious diseases because the symptoms manifested quicker than most pathogen’s incubation period, he said.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital Department of Occupational Medicine and Clinical Toxicology head Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌) said he suspected the dumplings’ leaf wrappings might have contained a harmful substance utilized as a pesticide, but added that no conclusion could be drawn until samples from the incident were tested.
One of the critically ill people showed symptoms consistent with poisoning by organophosphate or carbamic acid-based pesticides, including increased secretions, respiratory failure, slow heartbeat and loss of consciousness, he said.
The substances are frequently applied to protect Trichodesma calycosum plants, the leaves of which were used in the traditional millet dish, to kill snails or slugs, he said, adding that the victims had reported that the wrappings had a strange smell.
The possibility that cyanide had been used as a pesticide had not been ruled out, Yang added.
Metaldehyde, a substance local residents said they used to exterminate snails, was provisionally ruled out as the cause of death. as it lacked the lethality of the substance that caused the incident, he said.
Jimsonweed, a poisonous plant, had been inadvertently used as a wrapping for millet dumplings before, but no one had died from such incidents, he said, adding that the possibility of foul play has not been excluded.
