Death from OP poisoning

In August 1998, James Geoghegan, a healthy 67 year old Irishman, was killed by the organophosphate (OP) insecticide chlorpyrifos. He was helping his nephew to re-pot some plants, using the chemical in granular form, without wearing gloves. Within six days he was dead.
    Tragically, he was first to suffer an entirely inadequate medical response and the indignity of being thought a drunk. His daughter, Melanie, told Pesticides News the story.
    “My dad started to feel unwell in the evening after the work. The following day, he went to his GP, where he was given four tablets and sent away. On the Thursday he was found by my cousin on the floor, unable to move. He was admitted to hospital, but not given the antidote. When we went to visit him on the Saturday, we were told by the nurse that he was confused and aggressive, and they asked if he was a heavy drinker. When I saw him, he was desperate to leave hospital, and he seemed very ill.”
    The inquest, held at Dublin City Coroners Court on 8 October 1999, found that Mr Geoghegan died from respiratory failure due to organophosphate poisoning. 
    The jury raised serious issues about the labelling of this dangerous chemical at the inquest. They noted that Mr Geoghegan was not wearing the gloves, as the label instructs. They also recorded, however, concerns about misleading safety information. Symptoms of poisoning, such as sweating, headache, weakness and giddiness, are listed on the label, and there is an instruction to stop work if any of them occur. What is not indicated is that the onset of these symptoms can be delayed, thus making it much less likely that users will connect their ill-health with the insecticide.
    “I don’t think my dad had any idea he was using possibly dangerous substances,” says Melanie Geoghegan. “I know that this is probably happening to other people.”

Pers. comm. Melanie Geoghegan; The Irish Times, 9 October 1999.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 46, December 1999, page 22]