Thailand: Update-Canadian autopsy disputes Thai autopsy about DEET involvement - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

I wonder if this request was honored?

Report: Canada asks Thai officials to delay autopsies

Wed Jun 20, 06:41 AM
The Canadian Press
BANGKOK, Thailand ? A media report says the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok has asked Thai authorities to delay autopsies on the bodies of two Canadian sisters until the arrival of their relatives....

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Quebec sisters' bodies to arrive home from Thailand Thursday

Women may have been accidentally poisoned, Thai police say
The Canadian Press
Posted: Jun 20, 2012 5:07 PM ET
Last Updated: Jun 20, 2012 9:33 PM ET
[snip]
An earlier media report from Thailand had said the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok asked Thai authorities to delay autopsies on the bodies of two Canadian sisters until the arrival of their relatives.

The Bangkok Post said the embassy and relatives had asked that the post-mortems be performed at Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital.

Canadian officials said that report contained several inaccuracies. They said diplomats never asked anyone to delay the autopsies, said the autopsies had already been completed, and that the family had no plans to travel to Thailand...

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Police hunt for two men who partied with sisters

PHI PHI DEATHS
Police hunt for two men who partied with sisters

Published: 22/06/2012 at 01:37 AM
Newspaper section: News

Police are looking for two Portuguese men last seen with the two holidaying Canadian sisters who died under mysterious circumstances at a hotel on Koh Phi Phi off Krabi province last week.

The men are believed to hold clues about the women's deaths...

 

[alert]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/men-se...-killing-random-event-euro-2012-latest-16194/

Two Men 'Seen With Phi Phi Sisters';

[snip]

qmi Thai police are looking for a Portuguese man in their investigation of the mysterious deaths of Quebec sisters Noemie and Audrey Belanger, QMI Agency has learned. A source in the Asian country says surveillance video at a hotel on Phi Phi island shows a man leading the women to a room.

bangkokpost.com Police are looking for two Portuguese men last seen with the two holidaying Canadian sisters. Security canera footage, recorded between 1.10am and 1.14am on June 13, captured a male foreigner escorting the sisters back to their room. A source said one man was Luciano Tinto, 30, and the men checked out for Phuket on the day the sisters died.

[snip]

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

June 26, 2012

Dad suggests coverup in daughters' Thailand deaths

By Pierre-Olivier Zappa, QMI Agency

A small-town grocer who lost both of his daughters on a disastrous vacation to Thailand earlier this month has accused Thai authorities of covering up the true circumstances of their deaths.

Thai officials speculated the women likely died of food poisoning, but Carl says the Thai autopsy and the actions of hotel staff were suspicious.

He told QMI that it took too long to discover the bodies and to examine them, and he said police didn't keep him informed about their progress.

"The authorities say they found the bodies 12 hours after their death. According to our calculations it was 48 hours," he said in French.

Despite his grief and frustration, Belanger praised the work of Canadian Embassy officials who he said repatriated his daughters' bodies quickly.

The bodies were examined at a laboratory in Montreal and have since been given back to the family. Autopsy results have yet to be released.

More...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012/06/26/19921601.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Phi Phi Poisonings: Autopsy results on Canadian sisters ?inconclusive?

Phuket Gazette ? Thursday, June 28, 2012 8:16:51 PM
PHUKET: Krabi Police today announced that the autopsies conducted by Thai authorities on the bodies of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger failed to find any traces of drugs.

The lack of discovery as to what caused the women?s deaths now forces police to follow other leads in their investigation, Krabi Provincial Police Deputy Commander Boontawee Toraksa said today.

Audrey, 20, and Noemi, 26, were found dead in their hotel room on Phi Phi Island on June 15.

Their bodies were sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok for tests before being released for repatriation to their hometown of Pohenegamook.

?No [illicit] drugs were found in their systems and there were no signs of what may have caused their deaths. Now police have to wait for the results from investigations by other related organizations,? Maj Gen Boontawee said.

Among the other experts investigating the deaths is Dr Jakkarat Pittayawong-anon, a specialist from the Bureau of Epidemiology, Department of Disease Control.

Dr Jakkarat arrived with his team on Phi Phi Island on June 20 to collect evidence needed to discern the exact cause of the sisters? deaths.

However, he said that only after his team had compared their findings against the postmortem examination results would they submit a report to the Krabi Provincial Office and Krabi Public Health Office.

More...
http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2012/article16290.html

 

[alert]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

http://www.promedmail.org/mbds

Published Date: 2012-06-30 00:04:19
Subject: PRO/MBDS> Undiagnosed deaths - Thailand (02): Krabi, RFI
Archive Number: 20120630.1475

UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS - THAILAND (02): KRABI, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
******************************************************************

A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

Date: Thu 28 Jun 2012Source: Phuket Gazette [edited]http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2012/article16290.html


Krabi Police today [28 Jun 2012] announced that the autopsies conducted
by Thai authorities on the bodies of 2 Canadian sisters failed to find
any traces of drugs. The lack of discovery as to what caused the women's
deaths now forces police to follow other leads in their investigation,
Krabi Provincial Police Deputy Commander Boontawee Toraksa said today
[28 Jun 2012].

The 2 Canadian women, aged 20 and 26, were found dead in their hotel
room on Phi Phi Island on [15 Jun 2012]. Their bodies were sent to the
Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital in Bangkok
for tests before being released for repatriation to their hometown of
Pohenegamook [Quebec, Canada].

"No [illicit] drugs were found in their systems and there were no signs
of what may have caused their deaths. Now police have to wait for the
results from investigations by other related organizations," Maj Gen
Boontawee said.

Among the other experts investigating the deaths is Dr Jakkarat
Pittayawong-anon, a specialist from the Bureau of Epidemiology,
Department of Disease Control. Dr Jakkarat arrived with his team on Phi
Phi Island on [20 Jun 2012] to collect evidence needed to discern the
exact cause of the sisters' deaths. However, he said that only after his
team had compared their findings against the postmortem examination
results would they submit a report to the Krabi Provincial Office and
Krabi Public Health Office.

Maj Gen Boontawee today [28 Jun 2012] took the opportunity to defend the
efforts by police in their investigation into the women's deaths. "What
the foreign media have said about Thai Police ignoring the case, trying
to hide the news, and allowing an important witness to leave the country
is not true. I want to explain to the public that we have already done
our best at every step of the investigation, but we still have yet to
determine the cause of the death," he said.

Maj Gen Boontawee said that police realized that, "the Portuguese friend
of the 2 sisters who stayed at the same hotel and carried them into
their room is a significant witness who might have information that
could reveal what caused their deaths." However, he added, "By the time
police reviewed the CCTV footage on [16 Jun 2012], it was too late to
track down the man. He left the country on [17 Jun 2012] because his
visa had expired." Maj Gen Boontawee did not elaborate on what further
steps police had taken in order to contact the man.

According to a report by the Toronto Sun, [the 2 sisters] are to be
buried this Saturday [30 Jun 2012].

The results of independent autopsies conducted in Montreal, in their
home province of Quebec, have yet to be announced.

[Byline: Kritsada Mueanhawong]

--
Communicated by:
PRO/MBDS
<promed-mbds@promedmail.org>

[The newswire above updates the information on the undiagnosed deaths of
2 Canadian sisters in their hotel room on Phi Phi Island, Krabi province
of Thailand, reported in prior PRO/MBDS posting Undiagnosed deaths -
Thailand: Krabi, RFI 20120619.1373.

Based on the newswire, the autopsies on the bodies of the 2 sisters,
conducted by Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General
Hospital in Bangkok, have failed to find any traces of drugs that may
have caused the deaths. However, the investigation results from other
related organizations are still pending.

PRO/MBDS would appreciate further information from knowledgeable sources
on the investigations and etiology of these suspicious deaths in Phi Phi
Island, Krabi province, Thailand.

For maps showing Thailand's regions, see
http://www.thailand-map.net/thailand_provinces/; for provinces, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Thailand. For the
interactive HealthMap/ProMED-mail map of Thailand with links to other
recent ProMED-mail and PRO/MBDS postings, see
http://healthmap.org/r/2B99. - Mod.SCM]

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

There are more details about why the girls' father is unhappy with the investigative work done in Phi Phi in this article:

Questions remain as Quebec sisters buried

QMI Agency

First posted: Saturday, June 30, 2012 01:29 PM EDT | Updated: Saturday, June 30, 2012 06:20 PM EDT
[snip]
The family believes the sisters were accidentally killed by exposure to an insecticide vapour used to kill bed bugs...

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Belanger Deaths: Probe finds more information but no clues

Phuket Gazette ? Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:01:00 AM
...
THE EXPERTS

Dr Pasakorn Akarasewi, Director of the Bureau of Epidemiology at the Ministry of Public Health?s Department of Disease Control, heads the team called in by police to assist in the investigation.

?We went to inspect the area as per the request from the Krabi Police. The Krabi Police said they had experts for dealing with drug cases and murder investigations, but they had no specialists in public health. That?s why we went down there ? to offer some help,? he told the Gazette.
...
The public health aspect of the investigation focuses on possible food poisoning, contaminated water or any communicable disease that may have spread on Phi Phi, Dr Pasakorn explained.

?After collecting samples of nearly everything, we came back [to Bangkok] and had those samples examined in the lab. We found nothing unusual in any of the samples we analyzed,? he said.

Dr Pasakorn was also involved in the investigation into the unexplained deaths on Phi Phi in 2009.

?We sent our team from the Bureau of Epidemiology to collect samples just as we did with the Canadian sisters? case, but the circumstances behind those deaths were considerably different from those in this latest case,? he said.

?In 2009, we received a request from Krabi Police to assist their investigation. They said they suspected that the cause of death may have been food poisoning. But the test results weren?t what they expected, and the police were unable to determine the cause of death,? he explained.

?When we went down to Phi Phi again this year, we also wondered why such apparently similar incidents had happened repeatedly on the same island again. But the results from tests in this latest incident have revealed no connection with public health aspects to the deaths of the two Canadian sisters,? he added.

Dr Passakorn noted that the four deaths at the now-demolished Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai also faltered on the public health front.

?We believe the deaths may have been from the same cause, but we were unable to determine what that cause was,? he said.
...

Full text:
http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2012/article16385.html

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

DEET is added to a drink in Thailand on purpose. The girls' father is sure they would not have knowingly ingested DEET in a drink, however.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/31/montreal-sisters-die-thailand-insecticide.html

Quebec sisters died in Thailand from drinking DEET
Bodies of Audrey and No?mi B?langer found on June 15 at hotel on Phi Phi island
CBC News
Posted: Aug 31, 2012 10:35 AM ET
Last Updated: Aug 31, 2012 3:39 PM ET

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/police-clamp-phi-phi-sisters-deaths-clamor-grows-public-disclosure-16618/

Ryan Kells and Jill St Onge: two Phi Phi deaths in 2009, now two more
Photo by supplied
Police Clamp on Phi Phi Sisters' Deaths: Clamor Grows for Public Disclosure

By Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
PHUKET: Police investigating the mysterious deaths of two Canadian sisters on the Thai holiday island of Phi Phi have been ordered not to comment further because the issue is ''very sensitive.''

The suppression of vital information about the deaths of Noemi and Audrey Belanger comes despite a call by the sisters' father for details of the deaths to be made public.

Today Ryan Kells, the fiance of American Jill St Onge who died in equally mysterious circumstances with Norwegian Julie Bergheim on Phi Phi in 2009, echoed the call for information to be made public.

''I would love to have a more detailed investigation,'' he told Phuketwan. Three years ago, Mr Kells was quickly bundled off Phi Phi with the body of Ms St Onge in the bottom of a speedboat after the first pair of mysterious deaths. ...

 

[alert]

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Amazing find, Emily. Thank you for keeping on this story.

I wonder how they could tell an accidental, instead of a deliberate, poisoning had occurred. DEET does sound like the kind of thing that one would have access to if they wanted to deliberately poison someone.

 

[Vibrant62]

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

They must be investigating deliberate administration - I would have thought that the dosage level required for lethality is too high surely for an accident.

See http://www.inchem.org/documents/pim...Title:4.2 High risk circumstance of poisoning

If the median lethal dose in rats (2 g/kg) is
applicable to humans, 50 ml of 100% DEET may is
potentially lethal for an 8-year-old child
(Tenenbein, 1987).

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

At first I thought that a very small amount of ingested DEET can kill some people. (15 ml is only .5 oz) But I think in that case, the victim survived.

My opinion is that there is almost no chance of the victims having knowingly consumed a drink with DEET added to it. I agree with the victims' father on that point.

I find it hard to believe that adding DEET to tourist drinks is at all common in Thailand. I would think there would be more tourist poisonings historically if that were true, especially with the drink mix described in the articles.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/consultations/deet/health-effects.html

Intentional Ingestion of DEET

Rarely, people have ingested DEET intentionally to commit suicide, or because of psychological problems (Tenenbein 1987; Fraser et al. 1995). The effects resulting from intentional ingestion are variable, due to the different scenarios in which they occurred. Of the six reported cases of deliberate DEET ingestion, three led to death. In these cases, the amount ingested was 15-50 mL of 47.5% to 95% DEET in bottles. In two cases, bottles of DEET were drunk along with unspecified amounts of alcohol. Health effects included coma, unresponsiveness to pain and other stimuli, and death (Tenenbein 1987). In another case, a woman with a history of unipolar-depressive illness ingested a number of pills along with 50 mL of 95% DEET. She arrived at the hospital comatose and pulseless. She had a generalized seizure and died from a generalized bowel infarction (Tenenbein 1987). In another case, a woman with a history of psychological disorders ingested 15-25 mL of 95% DEET. She had a right and left atrial enlargement and diffuse ST-T abnormalities, but returned to normal within 24 hours with no further cardiac abnormalities (Fraser et al. 1995).

I have not been able find a case of DEET poisoning matching the symptoms in the article Alert found in post #15:

Dr Duangporn told Phuketwan today that she had ''never seen a case like it.''

''Both bodies had the same characteristics,'' she said. ''There was a lot of vomit in a wastepaper basket.

''There was blood under their skin, under their tongues and under their eyes. Their fingernails had turned green or purple.

There are reports of mucous membrane irritation in the CDC article, and very unusual skin reactions under some conditions here:

http://www.rst2.edu/TIES/ddts/university/docs/toxic.pdf

DEET Repellent
DEET (Detamide, MGK, OFF). For many years, diethyltoluamide has been effective and generally well tolerated when applied to human skin, although tingling and mild irritation have followed repeated application. In some cases, DEET has caused skin irritation and intensification of preexisting skin
disease. It is very irritating to the eyes, but not corrosive. Serious adverse effects have occurred when the product has been used under hot, humid conditions and applied to skin areas that are in direct contact during sleep. Under these conditions, the skin became red and tender, then exhibited blistering and erosion, leaving painful weeping bare areas that were slow to
heal. Permanent scarring resulted from most of these severe reactions.
Great caution should be exercised in using DEET on children. Only the products containing the lower concentrations should be used, and application should be limited to clothing, using as little repellent as
possible. If headache or any kind of emotional or behavioral change occurs, use of DEET should be discontinued immediately.

There is another autopsy being done in Canada. I don't think the police should write this off as unintentional death at this point. Let's say DEET were being added to tourist drinks with some regularity in Thailand, (again I strongly doubt the vast majority of tourists are aware of this); then it looks like only a very dilute formula of DEET could be used without many tourist deaths resulting.

If a higher concentrate DEET formula were inadvertently used in this case, many other poisonings and deaths would have resulted that night.

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Re: Thailand: Update-Autopsy concludes DEET was cause of death - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2012/article16875.html

Phuket hacks back drug ?growers? in Thalang
Phuket Gazette ? Saturday, September 8, 2012 11:58:54 AM
PHUKET: Thalang police and district officers hacked open a path for progress in the war on drugs in Phuket by cutting down more than 60 kratom trees in Srisoonthorn yesterday.
Local residents alerted officials to the presence of the trees after finding that teenagers in the area were stealing the leaves to make a popular party cocktail ?4x100?, which was allegedly linked to the deaths of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger on Phi Phi Island earlier this year.

However, 4x100 is not considered lethal when made using the usual ingredients of kratom leaf extract, cough syrup, cola and ice, but the alleged addition of DEET in the Belanger sisters? drinks may have introduced the tragic consequences....

That is a more reasonable scenario. DEET is not a routine addition to tourist drinks in Thailand, since the CDC data indicates it causes bad reactions, including death, when ingested in very small amounts when combined with alcohol or medications.

But a man in northern Thailand confessed to spiking coffee with pesticides in order to disable people enough to take advantage of them.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Man-held-in-poisoning-deaths-of-four-30180161.html

Man held in poisoning deaths of four
WISIT CHUANPIPATPONG
THE NATION April 18, 2012 1:00 am
A man has been arrested on suspicion of killing at least four people by serving them pesticide-laced beverages, while plotting to steal their valuables and vehicles.
Three victims have survived, while two others remain unaccounted for...

The pesticide used is not named, but one of the survivors describes neurological symptoms before losing consciousness. The confessed poisoner said only the people who drank a whole cup of the pesticide-laced coffee died.

 

[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Update-Canadian autopsy disputes Thai autopsy about DEET involvement - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/10/10/quebec-sisters-death-thailand-coroner-autopsy.html

Sisters' deaths in Thailand not from DEET, Quebec coroner says
Family still awaiting full results from Canadian autopsies
CBC News
Posted: Oct 10, 2012 7:13 PM ET
Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 8:38 AM ET

A Quebec coroner is challenging the autopsy findings of Thai officials that ruled two Quebec sisters found dead in their hotel room in June were accidentally poisoned.

Coroner Ren?e Roussel told Radio-Canada the concentration of the chemical DEET in the sisters' systems wasn't enough to be fatal...

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[Emily]

Re: Thailand: Update-Canadian autopsy disputes Thai autopsy about DEET involvement - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/holiday-island-killer-loose-canadas-envoys-stay-silent-16904/

Is a Holiday Island Killer on the Loose?

By Alan Morison
Monday, October 22, 2012
News Analysis

PHUKET: Poisons expert Deborah Blum now speculates that a serial killer could be responsible for the mysterious deaths of Canadian sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger on Phi Phi...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/poison-tourism-and-unanswered-questions-in-se-asia/

Poison, Tourism, and Still Unanswered Questions in SE Asia

By Deborah Blum
October 21, 2012 |
6:02 pm
Last month, I wrote a post about the mysterious deaths of two young Canadian sisters on vacation in Thailand this summer. I was troubled by the ever-changing explanation of Thai authorities, including what seemed to me to be a preposterous proposal that the women were killed by mosquito repellent mixed into a beach cocktail...

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Thailand: Update-Canadian autopsy disputes Thai autopsy about DEET involvement - Sisters Died Of Undetermined Illness In Hotel

Dead Tourists and a Dangerous Pesticide
BY DEBORAH BLUM03.14.1410:11 AM
...
I first wrote about these deaths in 2012, after two young sisters from Quebec died in their hotel on Thailand?s resort island of Ko Phi Phi Don. What caught my attention first was the improbable list of possible caused offered by Thai authorities, everything from poisonous mushrooms to cocktails laced with the mosquito repellent DEET. It rapidly became obvious they were among a surprising number of young women who had suffered undiagnosed poisoning deaths in Southeast Asia, some in the Phi Phi islands, others elsewhere in Thailand, and still others in Vietnam. My emphasis was on the unsolved nature of those deaths and the sorrow and frustration of their families.

Now a team of investigative journalists from Canada have published a report suggesting that the young sisters ? Audrey and No?mi B?langer ? appear to have been killed by aluminum phosphide/phosphine gas exposure. The experts they consulted say the bodies showed all the signs of this kind of acute poisoning, including bluing of the fingernails and toenails, which is a classic symptom of the kind of rapid oxygen-deprivation produced by this poison. The report, which also appears on the Canadian Broadcasting Company?s Fifth Estate program, cites evidence that some of the other travelers, such as a Norwegian woman who also died in the Phi Phi Islands, showed similar symptoms.
...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/03/dead-tourists-and-a-dangerous-pesticide/

Deaths of Quebec women in Thailand may have been caused by pesticide
Audrey and No?mi B?langer died mysteriously while on holiday in 2012
By Julia Sisler, CBC News Posted: Mar 13, 2014 8:45 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 13, 2014 9:49 PM ET
...
The CBC/Radio-Canada investigation received a tip about what may have killed the sisters that points to a lethal pesticide called aluminum phosphide.

In Canada, the use of this pesticide is strictly regulated, and fumigators must get six months of training before they can handle it. Denis Bureau, a fumigation specialist in Quebec who is licensed to use it, told the fifth estate?s Mark Kelley that it could kill a human in less than two hours if the concentration is high enough.

?If you?re asleep in the room next to it or in the room where it?s been under fumigation, you?ll be dead in a few hours,? he said.
...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/deaths-of-qu...d-may-have-been-caused-by-pesticide-1.2569434

See also FluTrackers thread: Chiang Mai: Unexplained myocarditis - 7 deaths - pesticide poisoning suspected

 

[Emily]

[h=1]Coroner's Ruling on Deaths of Canadian Sisters on Thai Holiday Island Points to Deadly Gas[/h] Tuesday, March 3, 2015
PHUKET: Sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger probably died on the Thai holiday island of Phi Phi from an unidentified substance present in pesticides, a Canadian coroner's investigation has ruled.

As many as 20 Western tourists have died in similar circumstances around Southeast Asia since 2009, according to coroner Renee Roussy, Canadian media reported.
...
Phosphine is one of few substances that can kill and leave little trace in the environment or in the body, according to the coroner's report.

''Phosphine is a pesticide that kills all that lives and all that breathes,'' states the report. The product is efficient, cheap and widely available in Asia.

Though phosphine fumigation in hotel rooms is forbidden in Thailand, the coroner says the product may still have been used.

''Science doesn't allow us to confirm this without a doubt,'' Roussy said. ''Maybe one day it will.''...

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/corone...and-canadian-sisters-points-deadly-gas-21969/​

[h=1]Quebec sisters? mysterious deaths at Thailand resort likely linked to pesticide, coroner says
Graeme Hamilton | March 2, 2015 | Last Updated: Mar 2 5:31 PM ET[/h] ...
Agents with Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has looked into unexplained deaths involving Western tourists, travelled to Ottawa in 2013 to help with the Belanger investigation, and they also believed that phosphine was responsible, Dr. Roussel said.
Her report calls on Quebec?s institute of public health to advise travellers of the lethal danger posed by some pesticides and to offer advice on how to detect symptoms of poisoning and treat it before it is too late...

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/0...ikely-intoxicated-by-pesticides-coroner-says/​