Six children, all aged three to 13 were hospitalized after they cooked and consumed sambar using poisonous cow dung powder mistakenly for turmeric powder in Coimbatore.
Coimbatore:
Unknowingly, the children used cow dung powder for turmeric powder as it resembled the same in yellowish colour. Then, everyone consumed food by mixing sambar, which had a tinge of the poisonous powder.
After dinner, the children continued to play. But they began to swoon one by one and also frothed. Panicked by this, the parents then rushed the children by an ambulance to Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).
Parents of a child, in whose house, cooking was done found a packet of cow dung powder being left open and came to know that the children had used it for cooking.
After an examination, the doctors too confirmed that children had consumed cow dung powder. However, the doctors claimed that the children were out of danger as they had used only a minimal quantity of cow dung powder in the sambar.
Though sale of cow dung powder is banned, many shops continue to sell them in Coimbatore as people buy it for cleaning floors.
The children, hailing from the same neighborhood of Tiruvalluvar Nagar near Kanuvai decided to prepare ‘sambar’ for dinner on Sunday night. Each one of them brought the cooking ingredients from their houses and prepared food in one of their houses
Unknowingly, the children used cow dung powder for turmeric powder as it resembled the same in yellowish colour. Then, everyone consumed food by mixing sambar, which had a tinge of the poisonous powder.
After dinner, the children continued to play. But they began to swoon one by one and also frothed. Panicked by this, the parents then rushed the children by an ambulance to Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).
Parents of a child, in whose house, cooking was done found a packet of cow dung powder being left open and came to know that the children had used it for cooking.
After an examination, the doctors too confirmed that children had consumed cow dung powder. However, the doctors claimed that the children were out of danger as they had used only a minimal quantity of cow dung powder in the sambar.
Though sale of cow dung powder is banned, many shops continue to sell them in Coimbatore as people buy it for cleaning floors.