Case Report: It Wasn't Pepper3

Fourteen of 20 workers who attended a company picnic became ill within three hours after eating. Half of the victims became ill within 45 minutes of food consumption.

Symptoms included dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, muscle fasciculations, and sweating. The median duration of illness was four hours. Food-borne illness was suspected. Six employees did not get sick: four who did not eat the cabbage salad and two employees who did not meet the case definition for illness established by the investigators. All fourteen victims reported eating the salad.

Salad ingredients were analyzed. The contents of a pepper container used in the salad were identified as aldicarb granules. Aldicarb is a carbamate insecticide that has an oral LD50 of 5 mg/kg. The leftover cabbage salad was found to contain 272 ppm of aldicarb.

Investigation revealed that one of the employees had taken the container from the pick-up truck of a relative, a farmer, who had died. It was believed that the farmer had used the container to poison bait to kill wild animals.

Note: Although this incident occurred in Louisiana, it can happen anywhere. The Agromedicine Program has consulted on four pesticide associated foodborne illness incidents in South Carolina. Two cases were suspected homicides (one successful) and two were accidental. The accidental cases were caused by similar circumstances described in the case: pesticide granules not stored in their original container and mistaken for food ingredients.

3Kohl KS. Misuse of aldicarb as cause of food-borne outbreak, Louisiana. 48th Annual EIS Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 20, 1999.

MUSC DEPARTMENT OF FAMIILY MEDIICIINE – DIIVIISIION OF PUBLIIC HEALTH AND PUBLIIC SERVIICE

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