India - Over 48+ School Children Dead Or Sick After Their School Meals Were Poisoned. - Protests Sur
8 replies, posted
[QUOTE][B]Bihar, India (CNN)[/B] -- In less than a week's time at two separate India schools, police said Friday, they believe that children have been poisoned by their school lunches.
At least 23 students in the southwestern coastal state of Goa were treated at a hospital after they got sick at lunch, authorities said. The students, in the third to fifth grades at St. Joseph School, have been released from treatment, Vishram Borkar, a police superintendent in Goa, told CNN.
St. Joseph School is a government-aided private institution, he said.
"We have registered a case of food poisoning," he told CNN, "and our investigation is on."
There were two cooks at the Bihar school, an official told CNN. Two children of one of them -- Panna Devi -- ate the toxic food and have died, medical superintendent Amarkant Jha Amar told CNN.
Panna Devi is not receiving treatment because she didn't eat the toxic food, Amar said. She has a third child who ate the food and is improving at a hospital, the medical chief said.
The other cook, Manju Devi, is also hospitalized, along with her three children, Amar added.
Earlier, CNN-IBN had reported that two of Manju Devi's children had died.
Bihar state is one of India's poorest. Experts have said the deaths shine a light on food safety in the country and have prompted discussion on how to improve national school food programs amid news that authorities warned of safety problems with Bihar's school meal program months ago.
On Friday, authorities in Bihar announced that a new committee would be formed to strengthen food preparation in rural schools. The state's mid-day meal director, R.
Lakshmanan, said village communities will also help monitor standards of meals for schoolchildren.
[B]
Deaths cause protests[/B]
The Bihar students, who authorities said were between the ages of 5 and 12, started vomiting soon after their first bite of lunch. Some fainted.
The parents of at least three children have buried their lost ones near the school -- one right in front of the building, according to CNN journalists who saw the burial mounds. An official told CNN that the parents did so out of protest.
After the Bihar tragedy, demonstrations sprang up around the area as people angrily demanded answers. One news video showed men apparently attacking a school bus with sticks. Others gathered together and held signs. Students at nearby schools refused to eat. A group that supplies lunches to schools in the Chhapra district of Patna was attacked.
It's unclear whether the children were intentionally or accidentally poisoned. An investigation is under way, and police told CNN that investigators have been unable to find the headmistress of the school in order to question her. Authorities were questioning the cook, also hospitalized in the tragedy.
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[URL]http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/world/asia/india-school-meal-poisoning/index.html?hpt=hp_t2[/URL]
Oh dear...
This is so fucked up.
-snip-
sorry being dumb
Doesn't food poisoning (the sort caused by bacteria) normally take 12-24 hours to actually have an effect? So if the kids started vomiting that quickly, that would suggest the food was contaminated with a poisonous chemical...
Wow, two of the cook's own kids died, from the boss ordering the food to be used even though the cook suspected something was up. If I was the cook I"d be looking for that boss.
I wonder if the head of the school gets some kind of kickback from the food supplier, to ensure that any food sent gets accepted and paid for.
[QUOTE=Camundongo;41523559]Doesn't food poisoning (the sort caused by bacteria) normally take 12-24 hours to actually have an effect? So if the kids started vomiting that quickly, that would suggest the food was contaminated with a poisonous chemical...[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
Bihar state Education Minister P.K. Shahi said the children were poisoned by an insecticide that was in the food
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yep chemicals, this was confirmed in an earlier article on the subject. Sad to see the death toll has risen.
It sounds like Organophosphate poisoning, so these children were basically fed the equivalent of Sarin gas for lunch.
I read in the yahoo article that the principal is on the run. I hope they weren't responsible, that's beyond fucked up.
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