Classes were suspended on Tuesday at the Adam Müller Gutenbrun German language high school in Arad, as dozens of students had to seek medical care at the Emergency Unit of the county hospital, and 14 of them had to be hospitalized, Mediafax news agency reported. Symptoms were similar: nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting and rashes on their faces. Authorities suspect that the children were poisoned after a rat extermination and disinfection was carried out in the school’s buildings.
The Arad County Inspectorate for Emergency Situations was mobilized; according to spokesperson George Plesca, a unit specialized in chemical, biological and radiation poisoning went to the school and took probes from the basement and the classrooms, but the poisonous substance has yet to be identified. “One of the classrooms was sealed, while windows were opened in others. Air quality was measured in the ventilated spaces and the closed classroom as well, so comparisons can be made,” said Plesca.
Arad County police announced that there is a direct link between the medical condition of the students and the recent disinfection at the school. Thus, a criminal investigation was initiated against the pest control firm under the suspicion of personal injury caused by negligence, use of false documents and traffic of toxic products and substances. The manager of the company, Csaba Veres, told Mediafax that they have used only substances authorized by the Ministry of Public Health, and he denied the possibility that the students’ poisoning was caused by these products. He stated that the substances were applied on several surfaces and the walls as well.
The Ministry of Public Health announced that a complex emergency control had been ordered. “It is not normal that only two months after the tragic events in Temesvár (Timişoara) such a similar situation develops. At that time, the ministry ordered that every single firm that carries out rat exterminations, disinfection and pest control has to be thoroughly verified. The Arad case shows that this was not done,” declared Minister Victor Costache.
About two months ago, a 10-day-old baby, a 3-year-old child and the latter’s mother, a 29 year-old-woman, have died because of poisoning in an apartment block in Temesvár. There, a highly poisonous neurotoxin had been used by a pest control firm in one of the flats, even though the substance’s usage is forbidden in populated spaces.
Title image: The substance that caused the poisoning has yet to be identified
