Poison sold to poor

City spokesperson Charles Cooper told Sowetan: "Action has been taken."

But Hanna-Andrea Rother's research found that the unlabelled poisons, which are sold in juice containers and brandy nip bottles, were also being sold on trains to the poor.

"They are poisoning poor urban children. These street pesticides are commonly sold at taxi ranks, train stations and by mobile street sellers on township streets and in trains to lower socioeconomic customers.

"Most of the pesticides sold on the streets are too toxic for domestic uses and are intended for use in agriculture," she said.

"They are used as bait for rats and mice by mixing with food (such as mealie meal and bread) or sprayed in the home with cosmetic or garden spray bottles."

Because Cape Town's informal settlements are infested with rats, cockroaches and fleas, there is a massive market for the poisons.

Rother said street sellers of pesticides should not be arrested as this will not solve the poverty which leads to pest infestations, nor remove the source of these pesticides. Meanwhile, children are suffering, she says.

One Philippi family bought "rat poison" from a train station for R2,50 a strip. They mixed this with food and left it outside on the ground to poison rats and mice.

Their eight-month-old baby was later found sitting on the floor sucking the empty poison packet and soon after was vomiting repeatedly. Though he was sucking an empty packet the dust from the poison was enough to see him hospitalised for three days.

An 11-year-old Phillipi girl took a sip of a liquid from a mineral water bottle, which she mistook for milk.

Her family had bought the poison from a door-to-door vendor for killing cockroaches. The child spent four nights in hospital. It is not yet known what long-term health problems she might have.

Source: Sowetan