Inter-ministerial officials are investigating the death of workers at Long Sreng banana plantation
Appeared 25 seconds ago
On Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Cambodia News, Kampong Cham: Inter-ministerial officials are investigating the deaths of five banana plantation workers in Kampong Cham province, initially suspected of being poisoned by pesticides and alcohol.

Dr. Ly Sovann, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health, said on the afternoon of November 1 that health officials are cooperating with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and other relevant units to investigate the deaths of workers in Kampong Cham to find out the exact cause.

"As a first step, the team was suspicious of the pesticides, but we also found alcohol poisoning after we tested the alcohol for up to 9 percent methanol," he said. "So there are cases involving alcohol, as well as spraying pesticides in the fields."


The doctor added that the cause of death of the workers must wait for an investigation by inter-ministerial officials to determine whether they were caused by pesticides or alcohol poisoning. According to Dr. Yin Sinath, director of Kampong Cham Provincial Hospital, some of the patients who were being treated had psychosomatic symptoms, as a result of group hysteria, (also occurs in mass fainting by school students and factory workers), as they were sick, but had no signs of pesticide poisoning.

Yesterday, 28 patients recovered and returned to their homes, and the remaining 34 are still receiving treatment, the doctor said. This incident happened on October 28, 2022 at 2:45 in the Long Sreng Banana banana plantation in Village 35, Prek Kak Commune, Stung Trang District, Kampong Cham Province.

Rice wine poisoning leaves three dead in Kampong Cham
Orm Bunthoeurn | Publication date 03 November 2022 | 10:45 ICT

Three out of 69 people who were hospitalised on October 26 after drinking homemade rice wine in Kampong Cham province’s Stung Trang district have died, with laboratory test results confirming that the wine contained dangerous levels of methanol.

District police chief Em Vathana told The Post on November 2 that those taken to the hospital were residents of village 35 in Prek Kak commune.

“Today the condition of the patients has improved and they have mostly recovered,” he said.

Yim Navy, head of the health bureau in Stung Trang district, said many ambulances were required to transport the victims to the district hospital, and those who were in critical condition were transferred to the provincial referral hospital.

He said the victims all described experiencing tightness in the chest, difficulties breathing and headaches after drinking rice wine distilled in the commune’s Prek Kak village.

He said health officials then followed up by taking a sample of the rice wine to a lab in Phnom Penh on November 2, which revealed that it contained high levels of methanol.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... mpong-cham