Woman, daughter may have died of pesticide poisoning, say police

Coimbatore: The deaths of two women a mother-daughter duo at Nallampalayam here on Saturday has shed light on the misuse of aluminium phosphide, a highly toxic pesticide.

According to police, M Anuradha, 49 and her mother S Premakumari, 70, had died after inhaling phosphine released by aluminium phosphide tablets, which were placed to kill bed bugs.

“Anuradha’s husband S Murali, a businessman, had placed the tablets in all rooms of the house at Ramasamy Nagar extension three days ago. On Saturday morning, Murali found his father-in-law N Shanmugam, who was sleeping alone in a room, struggling to breath and took him to a private hospital with the help of his son M Sabarish, an engineering student. After reaching the hospital, Sabarish called his mother, but she did not respond to the calls. Sabarish rushed home to find Anuradha unconscious. Premakumari was alright. Though he took his mother to a private hospital, she was declared as brought dead. When Sabarish informed her about the death, Premakumari died of cardiac arrest. We suspect she was also affected by the toxic gas,” a police officer said.

The two bodies were sent to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) for postmortem. Police sent the tablets as well as the viscera of the victims to the forensic science laboratory at Race Course on Sunday.

Aluminium phosphide tablets are used as a rodenticide, insecticide and fumigant for storing cereal, said T Sasikala, associate professor and head of the department of chemistry, Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science. “It is widely used as an indoor fumigant to protect stored grain. It is known as rice tablet in Iran. The Iranian Forensic Medicine Organisation stopped its use in 2007 following accidental deaths,” she told TOI.

When exposed to moisture, aluminium phosphide tablets release phosphine, a toxic gas, Sasikala said. “Overexposure to phosphine gas results in gastrointestinal signs and symptoms including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, chest tightness and muscle pain. Phosphine has an odour of garlic or decaying fish, but is odourless when pure. The gas damages proteins and enzymes carrying oxygen. It can kill human beings in a few hours.”

The gas could be fatal to those who have breathing problems, forensic science experts said.

The bodies were embalmed and were kept at the CMCH mortuary, Thudiyalur police inspector Balamurali Sundaram said.