CAUSE OF DISEASE.
CHEMICALS IN COOKING OIL. BRILLIANT ANALYTIC WORK. CAPE TOWN, May 10. The mysterious disease which affected 35 residents of Durban and 27 members of the crew of a French motor-ship in port has been identified, as the result of a brilliant piece of analysis and medical teamwork. It has been proved to have been caused by coal tar derivatives in cooking oil used in the preparation of food. The contaminating substances were inadvertently added to the soya beans from which the oil was made, or to the drums in which it was shipped. Doctors recognised the similarity of the disease to the ginger poisoning outbreak in Cincinnati, United States. After the failure of the British Home Office to find esters of certain cresols (methyl phenols) the doctors urged the Government analysts to persevere and an approach from a different analytical angle was successful. The patients are slowly progressing.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 194, 30 May 1938, Page 5
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151CAUSE OF DISEASE. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 194, 30 May 1938, Page 5
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