Food safety | UCT Environmental Health professor unpacks organophosphates

JOHANNESBURG – A toxicologist has found that six children in Naledi died from exposure to a toxic organophosphate earlier this month.

Organophosphates are usually used in agriculture as pesticides.

READ: Organophosphate ingestion behind multiple deaths of Soweto children

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi briefed the media on the toxicology results on Monday.

This comes after four people were arrested following recent health inspections at spaza shops in Soweto were found to have been selling illegal chemical substances.

But no link has been found between snacks the children bought and the chemical that killed them.

Professor Andrea Rother, head of the Environmental Health division at the UCT School of Public Health, discussed this with eNCA.