Mass ethion poisoning with high mortality

Abstract

Introduction. Fifteen people who consumed a meal during a social ceremony at a remote farm developed symptoms and signs of organophosphate poisoning. Methods. Information was gathered from villagers and doctors at the primary health center and district hospital. Serial measurements of plasma and red blood cell cholinesterase activity levels were carried out and the organophosphate compound was identified in blood samples. Results. Clinical toxicity included abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive secretions, and respiratory distress. The victims were taken to a community health center about 30 km away where three people died. The others were taken to the district level hospital at Palanpur where five died. Of the seven remaining victims who were transferred to a tertiary care hospital at Ahmedabad, one died during transport and another succumbed within a few hours. The remaining five people were hospitalized. Three recovered within a week but two developed complications: one had a lung infection and the other had cerebral anoxia following cardiorespiratory arrest. The person with cerebral anoxia died after eight and a half months. Red blood cell cholinesterase levels on the day of admission correlated well with clinical severity and outcome of the patients. The pesticide was identified as ethion. Conclusions. Pesticide poisonings in developing countries have high morbidity and mortality rates, as facilities for immediate treatment are not readily available. Such incidents should sensitize clinical toxicologists, health authorities, and policy makers to the problems of pesticide poisoning in third world countries.

Monocrotophos poisoning through contaminated millet flour

“…It is unclear whether this was due to a larger exposure or greater sensitivity. Four adults showed comparatively higher (8). Even though we know that the poisoning was due to ingestion of contaminated food, we did not establish the exact reason, but it was most probably unintentional.…”

“…All had signifi cantly lower activities of PChE and AChE compared to reference intervals of 2900 U L -1 to 5800 U L -1 and 1700 U L -1 to 2300 U L -1 , respectively (8). The children (Patient 1, 2, and 3) were drowsy at the time hospitalisation and had very low activities of AChE, ranging from 0 U L -1 to 61 U L -1 .…”

“…In the past fi ve years, several episodes of mass poisoning by different pesticides have been reported to the Poison Information Centre (PIC) of the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) in Ahmedabad; most notably endosulfan (7), phorate and ethion (8) poisonings. It has been observed that OP poisoning from contaminated food ingestion is all too often treated empirically for food poisoning instead of specifi c treatment.…”

Distribution and Elimination of14C-Ethion Insecticide in Chamomile Flowers and Oil

“…Ethion monooxon is a potent inhibitor of cholinesterases and exerts toxicity by reacting with an inhibiting neural acetylcholinesterase. 27 The breakdown of ethion and ethion monooxon has not been characterized Downloaded by [New York University] at 22:51 18 June 2015 but is presumed to be by esterases in the blood and liver. 28,29 Samples were extracted with ethyl acetate; the aqueous and organic phases were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).…”

Study of ethion and lipopolysaccharide interaction on lung in a mouse model

“…It arouses our interest to evaluate the effects of ethion alone and along with LPS on lung after single low dose of ethion. Although incidences of acute ethion poisoning has been reported [4,5] yet the pathogenesis of lung injury at molecular level following single ethion exposure has not been completely elucidated.…”