List Of Man-made Mass Poisoning Incidents

Incidents

* 1857, Hong Kong. Esing Bakery incident: 300–500 people consumed bread adulterated with large quantities of arsenic. Only three deaths were recorded, since the amount of arsenic was high enough to induce vomiting and prevent digestion. It is unknown whether the contamination was deliberate or accidental.
* 1858, England. Bradford sweets poisoning: Sweets accidentally made with arsenic were sold from a market stall which led to the poisoning of more than 200 people, including 21 deaths.
* 1858, United States. In the New York Swill milk scandal, an estimated 8,000 infants died in just one year, during the years long duration of adulterated milk.
* 1900, English beer poisoning, more than 6,000 people in England were poisoned by arsenic-tainted beer, with more than 70 of the affected dying as a result.
* 1923, Elks National Home in Bedford, Virginia. Nine killed by apple cider contaminated by a pesticide.
* 1930, United States. Jake Leg poisoning. A large number of users of Jamaica ginger were afflicted with a paralysis of the hands and feet that quickly became known as Jamaica ginger paralysis or jake paralysis.
* 1936, Japan. On 11 May, 2,072 people were afflicted, resulting in 47 deaths. It was one of the largest single poisoning incidents in Japan, caused by salmonella, but no investigation of the confectionery shop by local officials ever occurred according to the Japanese government.
* 1937, United States. Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster - 105 adults and children died from diethylene glycol in over 14 states from a toxic version of sulfanilamide created by the S.E Massengill's company marked as the 'Elixir of sulfanilamide.'
* 1964, The whole planet earth. A satellite called SNAP9a with 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of plutonium-238 exploded and was distributed over all continents.
* 1967, Colombia. Nutibara bakery poisoning: At least 75 people died and 600 recorded intoxicated after consuming bread baked with flour that was contaminated when bottles containing Parathion, a potent insecticide spilled over the flour bags during transit.
* 1968, Japan. Yushō disease; mass poisoning resulting from rice bran oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls in Kyūshū affected 14,000 and killed more than 500 humans and 400,000 chickens.
* 1971, Iraq. Iraq poison grain disaster: A mass poisoning by grain treated with a methylmercury fungicide which was imported to the country as seed and never intended for human consumption. According to several estimates, the recorded death toll varies from 459 to 650 people, though much higher estimates have been offered.
* 1973, United States. Michigan cattle poisoning with PBB: A fire retardant chemical polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) was accidentally mixed in with cattle feed and consumed by over 30,000 dairy cows. An estimated 98% of citizens of Michigan state was poisoned through ingestion of beef, dairy products along with other animals and their products.
* 1979, Soviet Union. Sverdlovsk anthrax leak in which spores of Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax) were accidentally released from a Soviet military research facility in the city of Sverdlovsk, (now Yekaterinburg, Russia), leading to deaths of at least 68 people.
* 1981, Spain. An outbreak of Toxic oil syndrome supposedly caused by contaminated colza oil. About 100,000 individuals were exposed and clinical disease occurred in 20,000 people, 10,000 of whom were hospitalized, more than 300 victims died and many more were left with chronic disease.
* 1982, United States. The Chicago Tylenol murders, an unsolved case of drug tampering in the Chicago area. Seven deaths were linked to the potassium cyanide poisoning, leading to a nationwide recall of Tylenol products.
* 1984, India. The Bhopal disaster (also known as Bhopal gas tragedy): A gas leak incident which led to at least 3,787 deaths.
* 1988, England. Camelford water pollution incident: The accidental contamination of the drinking water supply to 20,000 local people and up to 10,000 tourists, with 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate. Officially, there were no deaths caused by the accident. But 60,000 salmon and trout were killed.
* 1998, Delhi oil poisoning, adulterated mustard oil resulted in 60 deaths and more than 3000 poisoned.
* 2008, Chinese milk scandal. Milk and infant formula along with other food materials and components were adulterated with melamine. An estimated 294,000 victims; six babies died from kidney stones and other kidney damage.
* 2010, Nigeria. A series of lead poisonings in Zamfara State led to the deaths of at least 163 people.
* 2014, Flint water crisis. Over 100,000 residents of Flint, Michigan exposed to elevated lead levels in the water supply, including up to 12,000 children, resulting in brain damage to many of the children. And 12 died due to legionella.
* 2016, Pakistan. Punjab sweet poisoning: 50 poisoned with at least 33 people, including five children, died after eating purposely poisoned laddu, a baked confection.Testing of the confectioneries revealed they were laced with the highly toxic insecticide chlorfenapyr.
* 2021, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tribistovo poisoning: A carbon monoxide leak from a power generator led to the deaths of eight teenagers.
* 2023, Iran. Iranian schoolgirls mass poisoning reports. A series of chemical attacks during which students in dozens of schools in Iran were reportedly poisoned in various and undetermined manners by unidentified perpetrators. Reports of thousands of students being poisoned.
* 2024 Laos methanol poisoning, 6 died and at least 8 others was poisoned due to illicit production of alcohol containing methanol.
* 2024, Georgia. Gudauri carbon monoxide poisoning: 12 died from poisoning after a storm in Gudauri caused a power outage a day prior making employees heat lodgings with electric generators using fuel oil. Fumes from the generator caused carbon monoxide poisoning.

See also

* List of food contamination incidents
* List of foodborne illness outbreaks
* List of medicine contamination incidents

References

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Human-made
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