Kuwait Times

Published Date: December 30, 2007

KUWAIT: Kuwait's Minister of Interior, Sheikh Jaber Khalid Al-Sabah yesterday offered his condolences to the family of the gas poisoning victims in the Abdullah Al-Mubarak residential district. The Ministry's Spokesman Col Mohammad Al-Sabr delivered the minister's condolences to the afflicted family. He expressed regret over the accident that claimed the lives of two Kuwaiti children and two Asian maids.

Four others suffered lesser injuries in the accident that took place on Tuesday due to inhaling deadly gas fumes that were emitted from pesticide products.
Meanwhile, Col Al-Sabr appealed to all Kuwaiti citizens as well as residents in the country to be careful, take due precautions and not to keep any stuff at home or in stores that could cause them any harm.

Al-Sabr also spoke of the necessity of complying with residential safety rules as defined by the concerned ministries and the authorities. Tuesday's incident occurred as a result of a chemical reaction from pesticides which leaked in a rented basement that was unlicensed and supposedly used as a storage for foodstuffs.

The Ministry of the Interior announced yesterday that the results of the examinations of the technical preview in the death of four people have concluded that the cause of death was due to inhalation of a quantity of the high toxic Phosphine gas resulting from placing tablets of aluminum phosphide in the house's basement.

Sabr told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the General Department of Criminal Evidence has conducted blood sample tests taken from the deceased and confirmed that the death occurred due to inhalation of the highly toxic Phosphine gas. The official noted that the toxic gas affects the vital functions of human beings. "Remnants of the toxic gas have been discovered in samples of blood and stomach and lungs of the deceased," the official added.

Sabr said that the report of criminal evidence indicated that these tablets that were distributed in the home's basement have disintegrated as a result of its interaction with the air causing a poisonous gas that spread in the home through windows and ventilation openings.

Meanwhile, Otaid Al-Otaibi, the father of the two kids who were killed along with two housemaids as a result of inhaling toxic gases at their house in Abdullah Al-Mubarak district, criticized officials for blaming him for the death of his own kids. "They want to get off the responsibility," he said noting that the Ministry of Health was to blame as doctors at Farwaniya Hospital underestimated and misdiagnosed the cases and thus the death occurred.

Commenting on leasing the basement of his house to a food stuff company, Al-Otaibi highlighted that he had to do so because of the soaring cost of living and his burdens of loans. Notably, the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate handed over the house to Al-Otaibi after removing all toxic gases and turning it to a safe living environment again.

Within the same issue, informed environmental sources stressed that the Environment Public Authority had so far received many calls reporting the existence of unidentified substances stored in barrels in many rented basements around Kuwait. - Agencies