JEDDAH: About 400 kilograms of a deadly pesticide was seized last month and 10 companies were found to be selling this poison illegally, according to a municipality official.
Nabil Abu Khatwa, the mayor’s assistant in charge of environmental affairs, told Arab News that four of those companies have been shut down. He did not reveal the names of these companies.
The inspections of local merchants by municipal officials began after a Feb. 23 incident at Basateen Village compound where two Danish children succumbed to phosphine gas poisoning after a licensed pest controller applied aluminum phosphide, an industrial-grade pesticide fumigant, in an adjoining residential unit. This has been one of several reported fatalities in Jeddah and elsewhere in the Kingdom attributed to the use of this and other pesticides in residential buildings.
Dr. Khaled Mattar, a forensic pathologist in the Department of Criminal Evidence in Jeddah, told Arab News in a written statement yesterday that the public should avoid using “unusual pesticides” and only use consumer brand products bought from grocery stores rather than from specialized pesticide vendors or agricultural supply stores.
Mattar said that in July 2007 toxicologists were able to positively identify aluminum phosphide as the active ingredient in a nonfatal poisoning incident in an apartment complex in Jeddah’s Al-Shatie district.
“Gray powder was found at the scene,” he said. “The unknown powder that was collected from the scene was aluminum hydroxide, which is the end product of a chemical reaction of aluminum phosphide.”
Since July 2007, Arab News has reported 16 fatalities in Jeddah alone. Mattar said that prior to the Al-Shatie incident many cases were likely misdiagnosed as food poisoning.
The infiltration of aluminum phosphide into the end-consumer market has raised concerns by authorities because vendors are repackaging the poison, separating it from instructions and warning label, and knowingly selling this compound illegally.
“We’ve got guys in our office who — since reading about this in newspapers — came to me and said ‘I’ve used this stuff,’” said Basateen Village resident John Gilman. “You can buy aluminum phosphide for SR10 (about $3) down the road in a little jar and the guy says: ‘Put it in your room and close the doors.’”
“To sell this to people for use in homes is illegal in the US, and it’s irresponsible anywhere,” said Jim Knaack, a retired toxicologist and one of the first men to work on pesticide labeling in California.
“Nobody should use something that is handed to them with no packaging or labeling associated with it. And they shouldn’t be going to supply outfits because those pesticides are for agricultural or industrial commercial uses.”
Knaack advocates the use of so-called pyrethroid-based pesticides for home use. Pyrethroids are a safe, artificial version of a natural pesticide found in chrysanthemum flowers.
“For pesticides around the home, people should be using what’s called pyrethroids,” said Knaack. “There is a whole series of pyrethroids. There are probably 13 to 15 different ones that are available.
A committee that includes members of the ministries of Health, Agriculture and Commerce and Industry, Jeddah police, Civil Defense and municipal officials was formed last month (following the Basateen incident) to investigate how to fight the sale and use the dangerous agricultural-grade compound.
Jeddah authorities have launched their own awareness campaign, distributing leaflets at schools, mosques, hospitals, malls and publishing notices in newspapers, said Jeddah police spokesman Misfar Al-Juaid. Local police have confiscated 286 packages of aluminum phosphide from importing companies in Jeddah since the campaign against the poison began.
