How rat poison Aldicarb is killing our children

People who consume the toxic substance Aldicarb die from the inability to breathe.

The granule-type substance is banned in South Africa, but is being smuggled across the borders from Zimbabwe and likely Nigeria to be sold cheaply as rat poison after being packaged into small parcels, said toxicologist Dr Gerhard Verdoorn. 

“It is very potent and very toxic and if you ingest a sublethal dose, you probably won’t make it because it is a powerful neurotoxin,” he said on SAFM on Monday morning. 

“Most deaths come from the inability to breathe because it stops your central nervous system. Your diaphragm can’t move up and down to help you breathe and you die from difficulty to breathe,” he said.

The department of health and the police ministry are set to brief the media on Monday morning regarding preliminary findings into recent food poisonings that have seen children hospitalised and killed.

Verdoorn said Aldicarb is a type of carbamate. Carbamates are a class of insecticides structurally and mechanistically similar to organophosphate insecticides.

“Not all of carbamates are deeply toxic. Some  are very toxic, such as Aldicarb. Some have low toxicity but they are generally used in agriculture and, to a small extent, for home and garden applications.”

He said the company that used to make Aldicarb stopped production in April 2012 and its registration was revoked, meaning it was not manufactured in South Africa again.

Verdoorn said he was one of those who influenced the banning of possession of the pesticide.

“It is illegal to be in possession of even one gram of Aldicarb because of its highly toxic nature and because it came into the hands of crime syndicates that poison dogs. Recently we saw the impact on human life.

“I think there is more Aldicarb in the country than there was when it was a legal chemical used by farmers,” Verdoorn said.

Aldicarb can be accidentally consumed.

“It’s often dispensed on shelves and in between foodstuffs. If the packet breaks open and the contents fall onto open food which is not in containers, or people take it home, they can mistake it for black pepper and people die from it.” 

Verdoorn told the Sunday Times the illegal substance is widely available. This month he bought “straws” from vendors in Gqeberha and Kariega, one for R10 and another for R5.

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