P'nP: No poison found

2003-08-03 08:26

Malose Monama

Johannesburg - The food-poisoning scare that rocked leading retailer Pick 'n Pay was a false alarm - none of the products thought to have been contaminated with cyanide by an alleged extortionist were found to contain excessive amounts of the poison.

Pick 'n Pay chief executive Sean Summers told the Sunday press exhaustive tests by a team of toxicology experts had found no cyanide "had been added to any product. Products had been tampered with but not poisoned," he said.

Summers said during the course of the investigation into the extortion attempt, a number of products - including the initial three sent to Pick 'n Pay's offices by the extortionist - were exhaustively re-tested and it has been found no products had been poisoned.

Decomposition

The SAPS forensic laboratory and a private forensic team led by an expert in occupational and environmental health, Dr Murray Coombs, found that "despite the fact initial food tests and blood tests were above the background levels in the cases reported, it can now be stated clearly and conclusively that none of the products had any cyanide added to them".

Coombs, who explained that background levels were those falling within an acceptable natural range, said: "In the first case reported by a customer, a tin of sardines, the hole drilled in the tin by the alleged extortionist led to food decomposition which caused her to feel ill.

"Tests performed on her ruled out cyanide poisoning," Coombs said. He added the symptoms of other customers who felt ill were not related to cyanide from products they consumed from Pick 'n Pay.

"In the case of all the products reported, our own research, taken with advice and expertise provided by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US, has shown that cyanide occurs naturally in thousands of foodstuffs to varying degrees.

Nicotine

"After a series of test benchmarking and comparing levels in identical products from a variety of sources, we have now concluded these levels reported in the initial tests were not sufficient to suggest poisoning at all. In some cases, blood levels may have been affected by nicotine consumption, or may have been naturally higher than average."

Coombs said in a statement that because this type of threat had never occurred in South Africa before, there was no pre-existing research that "would have enabled us to draw conclusions earlier".

"The work that has been done by the forensic task team and all the other organisations involved, together with international assistance, can be said to be groundbreaking in that we now have accumulated definitive knowledge and understanding of naturally occurring cyanide in foodstuffs and blood in South Africa, which at their natural levels are harmless," added Summers.

Acceptable daily intake

Coombs said the World Health Organisation and US-based Environmental Protection Agency had established an acceptable daily intake of natural cyanide in water and foodstuffs, and that in every case reported from Pick 'n Pay, "levels were substantially below these international levels and therefore were naturally occurring and harmless".

He confirmed cyanide also occurred naturally in the bloodstream, with levels being affected by variables such as smoking, foodstuffs, workplace exposure, air pollution and drinking water.

The affected Pick 'n Pay customers were, according to Summers, all unavailable to speak to the press, "as they wished to remain anonymous. They are all fine and in perfect health".

Coombs did not personally get to interact with the affected custo mers. He told City Press his "junior" colleagues had retested all the patients and that all tests, which were quality checked by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), had returned negative.

The CDC also did not perform tests but offered professional advice to the South African experts.

'Customer safety paramount'

Summers said they were relieved when the SAPS forensic science laboratory and other experts confirmed "our" products had not been poisoned.

"Prior to our having this conclusive knowledge at our disposal, we could not and would not gamble with our customers' safety and we had to continue on the course of caution, testing and withdrawal. Then, as now, customer safety is paramount.

"Although we had indications about a week ago that some of our products were tampered with but may not indeed have been poisoned, we did not want to change our course of action or release the information until we were absolutely sure. Now we are," Summers added.

He said while they were pleased with the results, "we must not forget the extortionist is still out there. As we said at the beginning, the point is he did tamper with two products at store level. The SAPS are still vigorously investigating this case.

"Someone still knows something and we would urge them to come forward by calling our reward line on 011 455-3843 or CrimeStop on 08600 10 111. Anonymity is guaranteed and the R5m reward still stands."

- City Press