SPAIN: State to Pay Billions to Victims of ‘Toxic Oil Syndrome’

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Oct 2 1997 (IPS) - The Supreme Court of Justice in Spain found the State guilty in the 1981 intoxication of thousands of consumers by adulterated oil, and ruled that it must pay four billion dollars in compensation.

The first victim of the intoxication appeared in April 1981. Over the following three months more than 600 people died, and around 25,000 suffered an array of ailments, including total paralysis.

Investigations carried out over the following years determined that the poisoning was caused by the consumption of adulterated rapeseed oil.

Colza, or rape, is a member of the cole family whose seeds are used to extract oil. In Europe it is also used in industry, in which case it pays lower taxes. In order to avoid tax fraud, a dye is added.

A group of importers in Spain purchased the product for industrial use, submitted it to a chemical treatment to remove the colour added by the dye, and mixed it with olive oil. The end result was sold as pure olive oil.

But the chemical process used to remove the colour did not reduce the toxic effect of the dye, and thousands of consumers were poisoned.

Although the importers have been found guilty and will be sent to prison, they declared bankruptcy and will pay no indemnisation.

The verdict handed down by the Supreme Court Thursday found the state to be a co-responsible, and public functionaries Manuel Hernandez and Federico Povedano were sentenced to six months and a day in prison.

Hernandez was the director of the Central Customs Laboratory which in 1973 authorised the mixture of rapeseed oil with anilines. Povedano was the head of imports of agricultural and transformed products in 1981.

For authorising the mixture and allowing its importation, the State was found to be partly responsible, and must pay the compensation costs since the importers who adulterated the oil went into bankruptcy.

The heirs of the deceased victims will receive 50,000 dollars, and survivors will be paid 80,000 to 400,000 dollars – the latter amount reserved for those suffering total paralysis.

All those affected by the intoxication will have the right to demand indemnisation, whether or not they have pressed charges against the importers and the State.

The representatives of the victims expressed satisfaction that the State was found co-responsible, but considered the sentences too lenient.

Juan Antonio Sanchez, spokesman for the Coordinator of Victims of Toxic Oil Syndrome, said the sentences should be stiffer, and added that all the individuals who were tried should have been sent to prison.

But Arcadio Fernandez, president of the National Toxic Syndrome Association, considered the sentences satisfactory “because after 16 years we have won all the trials and appeals, and we have been found to be in the right.”

He added, however, that the next stage – negotiating the compensation payments with the State – would not be easy.