Silence of officials regarding serial poisoning of students – Part 2
According to Iran Gate reports, there are reports from the Qom prosecutor’s office to investigate the issue of serial poisoning of students. There are numerous reports of emergency forces being dispatched to several schools to assist students and teachers. There are also reports of some students and teachers being hospitalized in various hospitals in Qom due to the release of an unknown gas in schools. However, some say that all of this is just rumors and fabrication, that no one has been poisoned and the news is false.
Students’ poisoning continues to claim victims.
There are many rumors, from solving substances in the water treatment system of a school to the involvement of ISIS behind the scenes. However, confirmed news is very limited and often unverifiable. What news are we talking about? In one example, a father explains that around 2:30, his daughter called her mother from an unknown number. Her voice could be heard from a distance and she seemed terrified, asking for help. She said that toxic gas had been released in the school.
When I arrived at school, the surroundings and inside the school were filled with worried parents’ cars and emergency vehicles from the police, fire department, and ambulance. My daughter, who was extremely scared, said that at least one person had passed out in the school. This short report indicates that emergency forces have taken reports of gas leaks in Qom schools seriously, and as some say, these reports are not just an exaggeration by the students.
The first report of toxic gas leak in a school in Qom city dates back to the 9th of Azar month. What we know is that during this incident, 18 female students from Noor High School were taken to the hospital. The symptoms of these students included shortness of breath and numbness in their legs and hands. No one has provided a description of what the released odor in the school was similar to.
Majid Mohabi, the acting deputy of treatment at Qom University of Medical Sciences, stated to the media two days after the incident that the students’ symptoms were not severe and it was clear that the incident was a respiratory poisoning and not caused by the consumption of any specific substance. Mr. Mohabi also confirmed that teams from the non-military defense organization have been involved in sampling the gas that was reported to have been released in the school. On the day of the first report of the Noor School incident, Mr. Mohabi mentioned that the investigation results will be announced later, although this promise has not been fulfilled yet.
The majority of the students who were poisoned in this incident quickly returned home. Some of them, who had longer-lasting symptoms, were eventually granted leave, and Dr. Mohabi emphasized that the issue was not serious and the mild poisoning had been resolved. Some students did not attend school for a few days after this incident, but the school authorities insisted that everything was normal and reprimanded the absent students. It seemed that the situation was under control and there was no news of the defense organization’s report on the cause of the incident, as the same school got involved in another incident related to the release of toxic gas for the second time.
This time, on the 25th of Azar, students at the school said that they felt a strange smell in the morning and told the school officials that they felt in danger. However, they were accused of wanting to skip their classes. Around twelve-thirty that day, the unbearable mysterious smell became even stronger. This time, until two-fifty-one, fifty-one students were taken to the hospital.
No one still says what the released smell at the school was similar to. Was it similar to fruit, chemicals, or spices? What we know is that if the students’ reports are accurate, we are not dealing with carbon monoxide poisoning, which is caused by incomplete combustion of city gas, because this gas is odorless and can only be detected based on a feeling of heaviness and then unconsciousness.
Once again, the symptoms of female students include burning in the throat, nasal congestion, shortness of breath, and muscle pain. Most of them are said to have difficulty walking, and several of them are hospitalized. However, the results of the tests conducted two weeks ago on the poisoned students have not been published. Once again, tests are conducted on the poisoned students, but no report on the results of these tests is published. Two weeks after the recurrence of poisoning at Noor-e-Hashtom School in Bahman month, reports of mass poisoning of female students are published in schools in Safadasht, Qom. However, the symptoms are different this time.
The Public Relations of Qom University of Medical Sciences say that 15 students with symptoms of dizziness and nausea have been admitted to the hospital. There is still no description of the gas odor released in the school. From now on, the distance between reports of poisoning in schools will decrease and their number will increase. On February 10th, 18 students and one teacher from Fatemieh High School in Safashahr were transported to the hospital by an ambulance bus. Their symptoms were similar to the symptoms of students who went to the hospital from the same area on February 8th. On the afternoon of February 12th, seven female students from Balqis School were sent to the hospital with nausea and dizziness.
Four days later, on February 16th, female students from Gharaati High School in Pardisan and students from Meysam School in Salarieh, Tahaa School, and Imam School were sent to the hospital with symptoms of poisoning. The number of students and parents who were poisoned on this day has not been announced, and no report on their symptoms has been published. The only thing we know is that on this day, for the first time, male students from a boys’ school were also sent to the hospital with symptoms of poisoning.
Four more reports of students being transferred to the hospital with symptoms of poisoning have been published on the seventh of Bahman month. Hazrat Fatemeh Zahra Girls’ School in the 30-meter Kuyanfar district, Shahid Rezavi School in the Honarestan district, and some students of Seyyed Hassan Baraghayi High School in the Ammar Yaser neighborhood were taken to the hospital with nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. The number of students injured on this day has not been clarified yet.
We still don’t know much about the recent incidents in schools in Qom. We know that at least one member of the Qom Provincial Security Council has met with some of the affected students. We know that the Qom Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has promised to follow up on the matter, and one of the representatives of Qom in the parliament has stated that the issue is under investigation. Two months and ten days have passed since the first report of poisoning in Qom schools. Twelve schools, most of which are girls’ schools, have reported cases of poisoning. Most of the poisoning reports have been announced during the early afternoon hours.
Parents and teachers of students are concerned, but none of them are willing to openly talk about this incident. A general practitioner in Qom, who has visited some students with poisoning symptoms, says that official hospital authorities should comment on this matter and doctors are not willing to discuss the issue due to concerns about the dissemination of private patient information.
Zolfaghari, the representative of Qom, recently stated that the school incidents are a security issue and security officials are investigating the matter. Perhaps these few words are enough to explain the difficulty in accessing official information about this incident. Another representative of Qom, Amirabadi Farahani, also said that he will question the Minister of Education about these incidents, but it is not clear when this question will be asked and whether it is possible to hold the Minister accountable for his comments on this matter or not.
Dr. Mahbibi has stated in interviews after the events of the sixteenth of Bahman month that the reason for the occurrence of respiratory symptoms in students in schools in Qom is rapid breathing. ISNA Qom reported on the seventeenth of Bahman month that the investigations of the fire department and the health center in four schools that reported poisoning on the sixteenth of Bahman showed that the four schools, Ghorati Pardisan Meisam in the Salarieh Taha and Imami areas, were not contaminated with any identifiable gas, and at least one of the incidents of student poisoning in Imami school was due to carbon monoxide inhalation.
It has also been said that 18 students from Meisam school have experienced respiratory symptoms due to anxiety and there is no evidence of poisoning. It is possible that what is happening in Qom schools these days is solely due to the psychological burden of spreading a rumor, as Dr. Mahbibi mentioned that the reports may be due to increased anxiety.
It is undeniable that this rumor can provoke psychological security of people, especially teenagers. However, in this case, there are significant questions that have not been answered yet, including the whereabouts of the toxicology test results taken from students and why the non-military defense report regarding several schools that reported gas poisoning in Azar month has not been published.
On the twelfth of Bahman, the public and revolutionary prosecutor of Qom held sessions regarding the issue of poisoning reports of students in schools, with the presence of the deputy governor of Qom and officials from the non-military defense of the Medical Sciences Fire Department and the Education Department of the province, at the Qom courthouse. What explanation does the report presented by the institutions in this session have about this incident?
Finally, if all of this incident is a rumor about reports of poisoning caused by inhaling carbon monoxide and anxiety, why does Zolnoori, the representative of Qom, say that this is a security issue? Known journalists have contacted one of the members of the Qom Provincial Supply Council, the secretary of this council, and some other officials in Qom to complete this report, but no one is willing to make an official statement about the issue.
A series of articles on student poisoning has been specifically examined in Iran Gate. You can also read other sections of this article.
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