Officials: 9-year-old poisoned his family
Thursday, May 17, 2007By SUSAN DAKERStaff Reporter
A 9-year-old Irvington boy was charged Wednesday with four counts of third-degree assault for poisoning his stepmother and siblings, according to the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.
About 10 a.m. Wednesday, the boy confessed to putting TetraAqua Aquasafe water conditioner in his stepmother's drink on Saturday, sheriff's spokeswoman Kate Johnson said.
Sometime this week the 30-year-old stepmother fell ill and is now being treated in the Intensive Care Unit at Mobile Infirmary West, Johnson said. The woman's injuries are not life-threatening, Johnson said.
The 9-year-old also admitted to sheriff's deputies that he poisoned his three siblings in April with Mean Green, an industrial strength cleaner and degreaser, Johnson said. The siblings, a 15-year-old and two 11-year-olds, were taken to a hospital April 15 and treated overnight, the spokeswoman said.
Chad Tucker, a spokesman for the sheriff, said that investigators are working with the juvenile court system to make sure the boy receives help.
"This is obviously a troubled child," Tucker said. "It's an important step to put him in the system."
The boy was being questioned Wednesday afternoon at the Sheriff's Office south substation in Theodore and will be taken to the Strickland Youth Center, Johnson said. The family notified the Sheriff's Office about the poisoning, Johnson said.
The detective on the case contacted a poison control center, which advised that the water conditioner can cause extreme nausea and abdominal pain, Johnson said.
The conditioner, which is made by Tetra, a company founded in Germany, neutralizes chlorine and heavy metals in tap water to make it habitable for fish, said company spokeswoman Rosemary Hartmann.
The bottle warns to keep the product out reach of children but does not say it is poisonous, according to an employee at the Midtown Wal-Mart on Beltline Highway, which sells the product.
Tetra provided the Press-Register with the material safety data sheet that advises if the product is swallowed and "symptoms persist, consult doctor."
The European Union does not require the conditioner to be labeled as hazardous, according to the document. However, the document does say, "Do not allow undiluted product or large quantities of it to reach ground water, water course or sewage system."
The other cleaner, Mean Green, can remove tar, asphalt, grease, oil, glue, adhesives and other tough-to-remove substances, according to the product's Web site, meangreen.com.
Mean Green could be dangerous and could cause vomiting, drooling and abdominal pain, according to the Alabama Poison Center in Tuscaloosa.
"If it's a degreaser, we would classify it as an alkaline corrosive," said Lois Dorough, a registered nurse and education director of the center. "It would depend on the amount (ingested), but it could cause injury to the mouth, to the throat and stomach."
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