Authorities in Brazil An investigation has been launched after three women died and several others were hospitalized after a family ate an arsenic-laced Christmas cake, police said. local media.
The three women – who local media said were aged 43, 58 and 65 – died after eating the cake at a family gathering on December 23 in Torres, a small seaside town in southern Brazil.
The woman who made the cake, along with a 10-year-old child who also ate the cake, remains in hospital and is being treated for poisoning.
The civil police sent the cake for testing and said laboratory tests also showed arsenic levels in blood samples taken from the three victims.
Police said they also found several items of stale food while searching the woman's home, CBS News partner BBC reported. The police said that it is not yet clear whether the poisoning was intentional.
Tests from the cake are expected next week.
Brazilian Civil Police
The G1 news website said the police were waiting for the woman's condition to improve in hospital to question her. At the same time evidence was given from 15 other people as part of the investigation.
So far, no charges have been laid and police have not said if it is being treated as a homicide.
Reports say that the woman who made the cake got on well with other members of the family, and that there was no sign of trouble early on.
The BBC, citing Brazilian media, said that police chief Marcos Vinicius Veloso said that some family members complained that the cake had a “peppery” taste.
Images provided by police and posted online showed a dried fruit cake topped with white marzipan icing and maraschino cherries. At the family gathering, only one person ate the cake and was unaffected.
According to the local media, the police requested that the body of the deceased woman who made the cake be exhumed. He died in September from food poisoning, and his death was considered natural at the time by the police, the BBC said.
Very low levels of inorganic and organic arsenic are found in many food products, according to the National Institutes of Health. The test is normal, because slightly higher levels of either form can cause symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue and muscle cramps.
Inorganic arsenic is more toxic to humans than the natural form of the mineral arsenic, and the health effects of exposure are more severe, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency has designated inorganic arsenic as a carcinogen, or substance that causes cancer.
