GUYANA PRESIDENT CALLS POISON SCARE "MISCHIEVOUS"
President Desmond Hoyte said recent
reports of widespread thallium sulphate poisoning in Guyana
were mischievous and had gravely damaged the country's food
exports.
    "There is no thallium sulphate poisoning epidemic in Guyana,
as has been rumored," Hoyte said in a radio address late Sunday.
    Reports of a spate of poisonings from the chemical had led
some newspapers in the Caribbean to call for a ban on food
exports from Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago had restricted
imports of Guyanese rice, Hoyte said.
    Thallium sulphate, banned in many countries and blacklisted
since 1973 by the World Health Organization as a deadly
chemical, has been used by Guyana's state sugar corporation as
a rodent poison.
    Calling the reports a "mischievous invention," Hoyte said
tests had shown some of Guyana's main exports, such as wheat
and flour, were not contaminated.
    Hoyte based his statements on tests conducted by the WHO
and the Pan American Health Organization, which found only
seven cases of thallium sulphate poisoning thus far.
 Reuter
