Women Accidentally Drank Insecticide

Two elderly women in Saitama prefecture have poisoned themselves after accidentally drinking insecticide:

They accidentally drank the insecticide because it was inside a plastic drink bottle and looked very much like it was tea. Both women had to be taken to the hospital. At the time the report aired, one of the poisoned women had yet to regain consciousness.

On May 13th, the local neighborhood association had distributed small amounts of insecticide to each household in the area, storing the insecticide in plastic drink bottles. The bottle the women drank was a used tea bottle, and nobody had removed the label before filling the bottle with the toxic tea-like substance.

The insecticide came from the Koshigaya city government. The city had specifically warned against dividing the insecticide up into small portions, probably because this isn’t the first time that something like this has happened in Japan.

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rhi

…does insecticide taste like tea? Was the smell not a clue? I feel bad for these women, but any insecticide I have ever smelled is VERY clearly chemical-smelling and downright nasty. I just wonder how they didn’t notice?

lovely

i think they were both rather old and maybe their noses don`t work well anymore?
Guest

If you see a plastic drink bottle that contains appropriate-looking liquid in your own home, very few people are going to smell it before drinking it. This is especially true for tea products which aren’t as at risk for going bad/sour. Anyway, I doubt they continued to drink it after the first revealing gulp.

Guest

Oh, I read the description and got the impression that the citizens provided their own plastic containers. If it was the neighborhood association who distributed the insecticide AND the the bottles themselves, then I imagine the situation I mentioned in my previous comment would find more people being suspicious of random bottles in their house and what they contained.

Still very stupid on the association’s part, however.

http://nihonburp.com Michael Warren

Well its one way to get rid of inlaws if you dont like them
RMilner

It is a complete violation of safety procedures to repackage poisons into potable liquid containers.

To say the old women should have used their noses better is BLAMING THE VICTIM.

lovely

i wasn`t blaming the victim – i was replying to the comment. OF COURSE it is a violation of safety procedures!!! only idiots would do such a thing. sorry you misunderstood.
lovely

i wasn`t blaming the victim – i was replying to the comment. OF COURSE it is a violation of safety procedures!!! only idiots would do such a thing. sorry you misunderstood.

RMilner

I wasn’t replying to you. I agree with the point that the sense of smell fades with age.

Anonymous

Darwin swings and misses. Gives the base coach a “I’ll get them next time” grin and a wink.

iago

It’s not really “Darwinism” if the local government sends you a toxic liquid disguised as green tea.
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson

I doubt if two old ladies in their seventies are in any danger of reproducing…

Anyway, I hope the people from the neighbourhood association get charged with something.

Anonymous

I mean, if you get an opened half empty bottle of tea sent to you by the government are you really gonna drink that? What a tragedy really, but wow it’s so hard to imagine doing that. Even if I bought it in a store if I saw it had been opened I wouldn’t drink it.
Melinda

That was a terrible idea, to distribute it like that. Reminds me of when I unknowingly gave my younger sister wallpaper stripper to drink thinking it was apple juice when I was 6 and she was 3. She downed a whole glass without pausing even though it tasted, well, not like apple juice. Young children and elderly people often have things in common.
Melinda

That was a terrible idea, to distribute it like that. Reminds me of when I unknowingly gave my younger sister wallpaper stripper to drink thinking it was apple juice when I was 6 and she was 3. She downed a whole glass without pausing even though it tasted, well, not like apple juice. Young children and elderly people often have things in common.

Women Accidentally Drank Insecticide

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