Iranian schoolgirls mass poisoning reports
Dan Kaszeta, chemical weapons expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said that the incidents have similarities with a series of unproven poisonings in Afghan schools in the 2010s. Alastair Hay, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, reviewed blood tests results from Iranian girls suspected of being poisoned, and found no evidence of toxins. Kaszeta and Hay also told Nature.com that they have not ruled out that the Iranian situation is yet another episode of mass psychogenic illness. John Drury, a psychologist at the University of Sussex, told Nature.com that previous poison scares "led to symptoms such as nausea, fainting, and hyperventilation" and that "it is hard to distinguish between psychogenic effects and exposure to actual hazards."