Years ago, chemical killed several kids in Gurugram, Jammu

A Haryana government official aware of the matter said the victims included at least 26 children from Gurugram, who were prescribed a cough syrup manufactured by a Gurugram-based company. The syrup was later found to have traces of DEG.

Two toxic chemicals – diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG) – that have been linked to acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children in The Gambia had earlier resulted in similar deaths in Gurugram and Jammu.

A health department team arrives at the Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd unit in Sonepat, Thursday. (PTI)

In an alert issued on Wednesday, WHO said that the two chemicals are poisonous to humans when consumed and can prove fatal when ingested beyond permissible limits. They can cause kidney and neurological toxicity and have been associated with several cases of mass poisoning when consumed via drugs, it added.

Popularly used in industrial products such as paints, stationery ink, brake fluids and antifreeze, the chemicals have been involved in several mass poisoning cases dating as far back as 1937.

Between April and June 1998, at least 36 children aged between two months and six years died due to acute renal failure in Delhi hospitals, after consuming a cough syrup “poisoned with diethylene glycol”.

A Haryana government official aware of the matter said the victims included at least 26 children from Gurugram, who were prescribed a cough syrup manufactured by a Gurugram-based company. The syrup was later found to have traces of DEG.

The same chemical was also found in the cough syrup linked to the deaths of 14 infants in Udhampur’s Ramnagar and Jammu’s Bishnah between December 2019 and January 2020. The cough syrup, sold under the brand name of Coldbest-PC, was manufactured in a Himachal Pradesh manufacturing unit.

The origin of this toxic material was traced to Delhi-based traders, who had sold the raw material to a trader in Ambala, from where it was sent to a pharmaceutical unit in Himachal Pradesh.

On October 5, the World Health Organization linked the 66 deaths in The Gambia to the four cough syrups made by an Indian firm and manufactured in the Sonepat-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. All four had traces of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

According to Dr GL Singal, who was the drug controller of Haryana from 2012 to 2014, it should be investigated as to how and at what point of the manufacturing of the cough syrups the contamination occurred.

“It is imperative to ascertain the stage at which this contamination happened in the Sonepat unit as this tragedy again highlights the issue of gaps in enforcing the laws,” he said.