Mass cough syrup poisoning hearing adjourned

VICTIMS  of Panama’s 9 year-old mass  poisoning  scandal listed as one of the world’s top ten medical poisoning tragedies are still looking for justice and on the day  he hearing was to begin, it was adjourned as one of the accused was a no-show.

No one has yet been held to account for the deaths of hundreds of victims, and permanent illness  of thousands more,  who were prescribed cough mixture  containing  diethylene glycol  and prepared by  the  Social Security (CSS) laboratory, in 2007.

Diethyline glycol is  used in anti-freeze.

In Panama, the imported diethylene glycol came from a  Chinese manufacturer,  and was sold under the name TD glycerine, which means ‘glycerine substitute’.

The China Food and Drug Administration did not regard the toxic cough syrup scandal as being China’s fault. The Chinese manufacturer exported the diethylene glycol under the name TD glycerine, but the Spanish middleman Aduanas Javier de Gracia changed the name to glycerine when he completed  the Panama customs declaration.

Gabriel Pascual, president and legal representative of the Committee of Relatives for the Right to Health and Life, said they are seeking justice for the victims of  the mass poisonings.

Pascual reiterated that there are vast discrepancies between the number of victims identified by the Public Ministry and the number identified by the committee. The ministry says there are 3,100 victims while the committee says there are more than 20,000.

A hearing in the case was slated to begin on Monday March 14. but was adjourned as one of the people charged, did not appear. Those charged include former employees of the CSS, which distributed the  contaminated cough syrup..

Pascual said he expects those involved to receive an appropriate punishment.