Pesticide poisoning puts staff in hospital

A MORNING tea break went drastically wrong at a Japanese company in Niigata prefecture, 207 miles north of Tokyo, when 10 employees fell ill after drinking tea and coffee at work.

Police said yesterday that they were treating the incident as a poisoning and possible copycat crime.

It follows a mass poisoning two weeks ago in western Japan, when four people died and at least 60 fell ill after eating curry which had been laced with cyanide and arsenic at a neighbourhood festival.

"Turning ill right after drinking the tea obviously points to poisoning." said a doctor at the hospital where most of the victims are being treated.

Although preliminary tests of the Niigata patients' vomit showed traces of cyanide, further tests showed no signs of cyanide from the patients or the tea and water which the patients drank, a prefectural police spokesman said.

Police have yet to identify the poisonous substance and some experts have suggested the victims' symptoms appeared to point to pesticide.

"There's no way it could be routine food poisoning - green tea doesn't give you food poisoning," a National Police Agency official said.

Ten workers at the Xyence factory, which produces preservatives for wood used in construction, were taken to hospital with symptoms including fainting, vomiting and numbness in the hands and feet, a Niigata city fire department official said. By last night their condition had stabilised but doctors planned to keep them in for the night.

Thirteen people in the office drank green tea and coffee at around 8am at the office, said a Xyence spokesman.

The victims told doctors that the beverages had a strange sweet-sour taste. Within minutes they suffered blurred vision, palpitations and numbness in their hands and feet, followed by vomiting, temporary blindness and collapse.

Japan had seen similar poisoning cases in the past. In 1977, two high school students died after drinking a can of cola tainted with cyanide that was left in a telephone booth. There have also been several extortion bids in Japan in which cyanide was injected into food such as chocolate.

Japanese government spokesman Hiromu Nonaka expressed anger over the incident. "These are detestable crimes and I hope investigations take place urgently," Nonaka told a news conference.