Insecticide tainted food kills two dozen schoolkids in Bihar state, India

Some 25 children, ages four to 12, have died after eating free school lunches tainted with organophosphorus (OP) pesticide, a chemical used in agriculture and related to nerve agents like sarin and tabun.

Image/CIA

According to a Reuters report, the children fell ill after eating a meal of rice, soybean and lentils at a school in India’s Bihar state.

The school, at Mashrakh village in the district of Chapra, provided free meals under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the world’s largest school feeding program  involving 120 million children, according to the report.

Exposure to a high dose of this chemical can cause an irregular heartbeat, difficulty breathing, paralysis and seizures.

According to a CNN report, Bihar Education Minister P.K. Shahi told the news organization that the school’s cook had questioned the quality of the oil she was being asked to use but was overruled by the head teacher.

“The information which has come to me indeed suggests that the headmistress was told by the cook that medium of cooking was not proper, and she suspected the quality of the oil. But the headmistress rebuked her, and chastised the children, and forced them to continue the meal”, he said.

The deaths at the school has sparked outrage and protests, some violent, where demonstrators pelted a police station with stones, set ablaze buses and other vehicles, chanted slogans denouncing the state government and burned effigies of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Organophosphorus pesticides are applied to crops, buildings, ornamental plants and lawns. Agricultural uses include field applications on corn, cotton, canola, alfalfa, produce and nuts. Exterminators use OP pesticides in residential and commercial structures, and certain pest control products for cats and dogs contain organophosphorus compounds.