Poisoned lives.

An investigation of "the world's worst outbreak of mass food poisoning" which occurred in central and north-west Spain in May 1981, when at least 700 people died and more than 25,000 fell seriously ill from "toxic oil syndrome", supposedly caused by contaminated cooking oil. Highlights the growing uncertainty surrounding the precise cause of the disease and examines the possibility that organo-phosphate poisoning from eating American tomatoes sprayed with pesticides, rather than contaminated cooking oil, was the real cause of the epidemic. With Dr. Juan Tabuenca (Nino Jesus Hospital, Madrid), Dr. Luiz Sanchez Monge (Madrid), and Enrique Martinez de Genique (Spanish Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs at the time of the outbreak).