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a suspected mass food poisoning case occurred in taitung, and three people have died so far. the taiwan authorities' health authorities, the centers for disease control and prevention and the food and drug administration, have tested human bodies and food waste samples. the taiwan authorities' health authorities held an impromptu press conference this morning (19th) and confirmed that the organophosphate terbufos (also known as "terbufos" in mainland china, a highly toxic pesticide) was detected in the food waste samples.

a suspected food poisoning case occurred in binmao village, jinfeng township, taitung county. an 83-year-old woman ate her own "acu" (pork, snails, bamboo shoots, millet flour, millet wrapped in thorn leaves, similar to rice dumplings) and felt unwell at around 7 pm on the 17th. her heartbeat stopped on the way to the hospital and she was later pronounced dead. the family originally thought that the old woman had simply died of illness, so they found more than 30 relatives and friends to keep vigil for her and eat the food she left before her death. unexpectedly, at around 3 am on the 18th, some people began to vomit and convulse and were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. this incident caused a total of 12 people to be sent to the hospital, 3 deaths and 4 people in the intensive care unit. the cause of death and the source of poisoning are currently under investigation.

the taitung county health bureau stated that the first batch of samples had been delivered to taipei for testing before noon yesterday (18th), but in order to accurately determine the source of the poisoning, the toxicologists appointed by the taiwan authorities went to binmao village today to collect samples in order to find the cause as soon as possible. the entire case is currently being led by the taiwan authorities. zhong mingxia, deputy director of the taitung county health bureau, emphasized that whether it was food poisoning or what kind of poison it was, this part could not be explained before the investigation was sorted out. the relevant test reports were all uniformly explained to the outside by the taiwan "center for disease control". it is understood that the taiwan health authorities accepted a total of 3 samples marked "tangria sanguinea", "snail" and "food leftovers" sent by the county health bureau for testing at about 1:30 pm on the 18th. after colleagues worked overtime overnight to conduct extensive screening tests for pesticides such as metaldehyde and organophosphorus agents,

taiwan's health authorities held an impromptu press conference this morning, chaired by deputy minister lin jingyi, and attended by fda director zhuang shenghong, cdc deputy director luo yijun, and medical affairs department technical officer li zhongyue. it is said that an unusual signal was found in the "leftover" sample (snail millet rice dumpling), which was subsequently confirmed to be the organophosphorus agent tofosone by gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (gc/ms/ms) and liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry (lc/hrms), while no signal was detected in the "snail" and "tang" samples.

it is understood that tofosone is an organophosphorus insecticide, which is a highly toxic pesticide. typical symptoms of organophosphorus insecticide poisoning include pinpoint pupils, coma or semi-coma, excessive saliva and sputum, strong smell of pesticides (or garlic) in breath or vomit, sweat all over the body, local muscle twitching, etc. acute symptoms usually appear within 5 to 30 minutes, but in a few cases they may be delayed to several hours or even 12 hours later, which is related to the exposure dose and substance.

taiwan’s health authorities said that the food and drug administration, centers for disease control, and experts, together with the taitung county health bureau, will continue to track the development of the incident and cooperate with prosecutors to further clarify the cause of the poisoning.

it is also understood that the food poisoning incident has spread to snail farmers, who have come out to clarify. one white snail farmer said that they raise snails naturally without fertilizers or pesticides. another restaurant owner admitted that after the incident, very few customers ordered snails, and some even asked about the source of the snails.(lin jingxian, strait herald reporter in taiwan)