PARAQUAT

Figure 1: Age standardized suicide rates for males and females, Sri Lanka 1975–2005 D (Gunnell
et al 2007)
3.5 Accidental poisonings
Other exposures can occur through accidental
ingestion when paraquat is stored in refreshment,
liquor, or medicine bottles, and even homicide.
Severe and fatal poisonings have occurred with
children playing with rinsed spray jets and bottle
tops, and empty bottles (Wesseling et al 2001a).
There has always been a particular problem with
accidental poisoning with paraquat, especially
of children, usually as a result of the herbicide
being stored in inappropriate containers and
being mistaken for a drink. The fi rst fatalities
from paraquat occurred in 1964 (IPCS 1984),
only 2 years after paraquat was fi rst registered.
They involved a child in Ireland, followed by 2
men in New Zealand. The later had apparently
accidentally drunk a 20% solution of paraquat
at a party from a bottle that had previously
contained stout. One died 7 days later and the
other 15 days later (Bullivant 1966). Despite
all regulatory efforts such poisonings are still
happening, even in developed countries: in
2008 a 2-year-old died in Australia after drinking
paraquat from an unlabelled sports drink bottle
(Stevens 2008), and in 2010 in the United States
there was a report of an 8-year-old who died as
a result of a similar accident (Chen et al 2010b).
An 18-year old boy from Shaxian County, China,
was hospitalised after drinking paraquat, having
mistaken it for a very similar looking medical
tonic (Jing 2010).
Even adults are still dying in this manner: in
2004, in the UK, a 66-year-old man died when he
mistakenly consumed paraquat stored in mineral
water bottles at a bowling club (Mcdonald 2008);
and in the same year a second man died after
drinking paraquat decanted into a drink bottle by
a City Council employee (PAN UK 2006a).
One child died after using an empty Gramoxone
bottle to drink water from a water tank (Wesseling
et al 1997).
In 2005, 50 men from rural Sri Lanka drank illicit
alcohol, kasippu, that had been contaminated
with unusually high levels of paraquat. Five
died between 9 and 30 days later, from renal
and respiratory conditions. Survivors suffered
fever, headache, cough, shortness of breath,
abdominal pain, lung problems, and enlarged
livers (Beligaswatte et al 2008). Brewers of
kasippu are said to commonly hang a bottle of
paraquat with the lid pierced over the distilling
liquor in the belief that the pesticide evaporates
but condensed particles of it act as a catalyst,
increasing the concentration and quality of the
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