Spanish Consumers Organize in Response to the Killer Oil Scandal

In the past six months in Spain over 160 people have died and more than 12,000 have become ill after contracting a lethal disease linked to poisoned rapeseed oil. The epidemic, which struck down its first victim on May 1, is fast becoming an international issue.

Several companies dealing in oils and high protein meal are responsible for the distribution throughout Spain early this year of the toxic oil, which has been falsely marketed as olive oil. The estimated $40 million fraud has led to criminal charges against a score of people so far. It has also triggered a major political scandal in Spain. Consumer groups are demanding legislation to ensure quality control and thorough policing of all consumer goods.

The Spanish authorities have failed so far to produce all the facts and figures on retailing and production of 10,000 tons of the poisoned oil. The nature of the disease remains unknown and it is far from being contained. Fearing the disease will spread, the French government decided on October 19 to ban imports of all Spanish oils and canned goods containing oils, for a three-month period.

When the first victims succumbed six months ago doctors could not identify the disease. The symptoms are similar to those caused by acute bronchitis or thrombosis. Patients vomit, have difficulty breathing and suffer from partial paralysis of the limbs. At first Spanish authorities claimed the mysterious sickness stemmed from a pneumonic mycroplasma. The situation was well under control, they said.

But with the death count steadily rising, the head of Madrid's biggest public hospital blamed other causes, stating publicly that victims were suffering from acute poisoning. For this he was promptly fired. The government apparently feared this theory could damage Spain's summer tourist trade, a major foreign currency earner:

Then the rumors became rampant. Some people claimed the epidemic was carried by household pets; others said it came from eating strawberries. So truckloads of strawberries were dumped and scores of domestic pets were shot. One press report claimed the deaths were caused by a germ which had escaped from a biological warfare laboratory allegedly set up in a U.S. Army base near Madrid.

After weeks of investigation, researchers established that the toxic syndrome victims had all consumed what was allegedly olive oil, sold in unlabelled cans. Further analysis showed the "olive oil" was in fact a mixture of animal and vegetable oils blended to approximate the taste of olive oil.

The major component of the fake olive oil is rapeseed oil which, in edible form, is banned from import into Spain. Licenses for import are granted only for industrial use, and in that case the rapeseed oil is stained with aniline, a poisonous substance making it unfit for human consumption.

The poisonous industrial rapeseed oil was imported from France, the European Economic Community's major rapeseed producer. The oil, which was mostly sold in markets or small street stalls, had first been refined to eliminate the toxic substances. But the refining process itself apparently produced a new and deadly compound, oleoanalyde, whose exact effects on the human body remain unknown.

Medical researchers are struggling to find an antidote, but many discharged patients are returning to hospital when struck by what seems to be a new stage of the mystery disease. Doctors fear oleoanalyde cannot be eliminated naturally by the body. Its effects could be irreversible, they say.

Spanish newspapers feature a daily "new deaths, new patients and discharged" column. The government has agreed to pay damages to the victims, and has promised drastic new measures to protect consumers.

But the scandal has now gone beyond the poisoned oil itself. Inquiries on how much industrial oil came into the country, and how it came to be sold both in bulk unlabelled containers and under reputable and well known trademarks, have revealed widespread administrative incompetence and probable corruption. Industrial oil has often been imported into Spain under false licenses, with customs and health officials failing to implement controls.

As a result, the Spanish media and the public now have a heightened awareness of health hazards and are extremely food conscious. It is widely understood that many olive oils, although not toxic, are sham products, and in the course of the investigation it has been discovered that around 500 slaughterhouses in the country are processing diseased cattle meat. The public has responded with angry demonstrations -100,000 people protested in Madrid in early October-and by setting up consumer protection associations.

So far the killer oil scandal has not had a negative effect on the international rapeseed market. But Spanish growers-who began planting rapeseed in 1975 when the olive oil lobby lost some clout after General Franco's death-fear the millions invested on this less-expensive crop may have to be written off. Some have even blamed the international soybeans lobby for much of the bad publicity surrounding the scandal.

Rapeseed is currently the world's fourth-ranking edible vegetable oilseed, exceeding in world oil tonnage traded by soybeans, sunflower and peanuts. The top-seller, soybeans, is a virtual U.S. monopoly-the U.S. produces 65% of the world's stock. (The USSR and eastern European countries are the main producers of sunflower oil.)

In a bid to decrease their dependence on the U.S. for oils and high protein meals, the common market countries have been turning to rapeseed.

- Claire Rosemberg