CHILDREN POISONED

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1932, Page 9

CHILDREN POISONED

GAS FROM WALL PLASTER. Evidence that a wall-plaster had produced deadly arsenious oxide, capable of being inhaled by a human be ing was given by the Gloucestershire countv analyst, when the mysterious deaths of two Forest of Dean childien were investigated at the resumed mouest at Cinderford’. . The children were Roderick, aged 4, and Miriam, aged 11, of Hills jJ e ’ Blakeney. Their parents, Mr and M s William Turley, and two other children were also affected by the illness, and the jury, in returning one of thenverdicts, added a rider that The house should be inspected by the Medical Officer of Health before the family were allowed to re-enter and live in it, because it was not fit for human habitation in its present stateTwo representatives of a wallpaper company were present at the inquiry. Giving evidence at the inquest on Roderick Turley, Dr. J. W. Dowser said the general condition of the house was very damp, with fungus on the wallsDr. E. Norman Davey, pathologist of Gloucester Royal Infirmary, said that tests of blood taken from the brother Arthur and from the father and mother showed that at some time within the- Idst few years all three bad suffered from an infection in the form of dysentery. Mr R. H- Ellis. County Analyst, said

In found very minute traces of arsenic in the liver and kidneys of B'/dciick The total amount was .149 of .i milligram. The quantity was not •i.fficient to cause death in itself, but it might have been one of the causes ot diarrho'ea and sickness. Prof. Harold A. Solberg, said death was due to a streptococcus infectionThis infection was present in the heart, blood, and spleen. He considered that the house in which the family lived was not fit for human habitation in its present condition. The jury, without retiring, returned a verdict of death from natural causes. .

ATMOSPHERE CHARGED. At the inquest on Miriam Turley, Mr Ellis said the total amount of arsenic in certain organs of the body was 2-65 milligrammes. There were definite evidences of arsenic present in the cottage, some having been given off in gaseous form

from the surface of the sitting-room, the walls of which were covered with mould. One of the specimens of wallpaper contained 3 parts per 1,000,000 of arsenic oxide. A roll of paper of the same pattern had been sent to him, , and this contained 4.4 parts per 1,000,- ; 000 of arsenic. > He removed a portion of the plaster • at a place at which, he had removed . the paper on which* the mould had s been growing vigorously. He was . surprised to find that the plaster was so black in colour. It contained 91 I parts per 1.000,000 of arsenious oxide.

The spores of the mould attached themselves to the damp paper and grew vigorously, and these moulds had the power of generating a gaseous form ot arsenic from the arsenical base on which they were growing. “It is significant,” said Mr Ellis, “that the arsenic content of the mouldy paper, taken from the wall of tiic sitting-room, was only half the arsenic content of a new roll of the same paper, and about a quarter of the arsenic content of a portion of the same paper taken from the dry portion of the wall.” Mr Ellis said it used to be customary for arsenic to be used in the production of cheap wallpaper, but not to-day. He suggested that it was the plaster, and not the wallpaper, that produced arsenious oxide which was capable of being inhaled by a human being. The form of afsenic given off from this mould was organic, which was one of the most deadly forms of arsenic. The Foreman of the Jury: The atmosphere would be charged by arsenic? Witness: Yes, and I feel the plaster was the real cause of the trouble. Damp was at the root of the matter. Had the mould not been there - the arsenic would not have been released iu gaseous form. Prof. Scholbrg agreed With Mr Ellis. . v : The jury returned a 4 verdict that death was due to dysentery and exposure to organic arsenic, which -was generated in the house in a gaseous form. They added the rider ” given above. - \ .