DOUBLE FATALITY WITH CHILDREN DUE TO FUMIGATED WHEAT

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 9  (2) , 113-118
Abstract
Two children, 4 and 2 yr old, played on top of wheat that had been fumigated with malathion, pyrethrum and phosphine. Both died within 18 h. Because, after the autopsy, death could not be attributed to any organic or violent cause, a toxicological analysis was carried out. No drugs, except alcohol, was detected. Those results were attributed to hydrolysis of malathion, yielding 2 molecules of ethanol. As this was an indirect proof of malathion ingestion, it was assumed that phosphine had been ingested as well and that this was the cause of death, because phosphine is much more toxic than malathion and because it was continuously generated from incompletely dissolved aluminium phosphide tablets, while the children were still playing.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: