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in nineteenth century Britain. The twentieth century was a witness to major environmental poisoning tragedies. Release of industrial waste into Minamata Bay led to high contamination of seafood with mercury compounds, causing a syndrome now called Minamata disease, which led to thousands of deaths and ten thousands of severe cases of methyl mercury neurotoxicity in adults and newborn children in Japan. The Bhopal disaster in India was due to the release of methyl isocyanate from a pesticide plant, and Times Beach, Missouri, has been a ghost town since 1983 because industrial waste oil was used to decrease the dustiness of roads, leading to massive environmental dioxin contamination. The following picture of events in Gandaman village is now emerging. The children most likely died from an acute cholinergic syndrome due to intoxication with the pesticide monocrotophos. The source of contamination is still unclear, but forensic analysis reported high levels of monocrotophos in the cooking oil used for preparing the school lunches, and a container previously used to store pesticides was found in the kitchen area. According to press reports, the school cook had complained about the color and the smell of the newly delivered cooking oil, but the school principle negated the problem. It appears that the cooking oil was bought from a store owned by the husband of the school principal. Monocrotophos, dimethyl 2-methylcarbamoyl-1-methyl-vinyl phosphate, is a chemical belonging to the group of organophosphates. Many organophosphates are acetylcholine esterase inhibitors and cause an acute cholinergic syndrome through increased concentrations of the excitatory neurotransmitter acetylcholine in synapses and neuromuscular junctions (thus acting much like chemical weapons such as soman, VX, and sarin). Monocrotophos is insecticidal (including bees!), but also highly toxic to At first glance, recent headlines of “Monocrotophos in Gandaman village” sounded like the title of a Bollywood film featuring a Greek god visiting an Indian village. But, this story had no colorful settings, dancing, or happy ending. And if a Greek god had been involved, his name would have been Thanatos, the personification of death. On July 16, 2013, children in Gandaman village in Bihar, one of the poorest states of India, fell violently sick after eating a school lunch. Twenty-three died, many within a few hours of eating. Poisoning through environmental chemicals has afflicted humans for a long time. The oldest case of environmental toxicity is scientifically attested by hair analysis of the Tyrolean Neolithic mummy “Ötzi,” who died between 3359 and 3105 BC (Bolt 2012). Ötzi suffered from chronic arsenic exposure, probably because of his long-term involvement in copper working. Lead poisoning was prevalent in ancient Rome, and the English idiom “mad as a hatter” is a reminder of workplace exposure to mercury compounds

Monocrotophos in Gandaman village: India school lunch deaths and need for improved toxicity testing