Romanians hospitalized after eating cyanide-contaminated fish

About 30 people were hospitalized with cyanide poisoning Friday after eating contaminated fish in an impoverished area of northeastern Romania. Thousands of dead fish were found floating Thursday in the Siret River, which had high levels of cyanide after a spill at Metadet, a chemical company.

No one is sure how much cyanide poured into the river near Lespezi, a town 200 miles northeast of Bucharest. But environment officials reported Friday that cyanide was 128 times the accepted levels in the Siret and one of its tributaries. Residents gathered the dead fish and ate or sold them despite warnings about possible gastritis and kidney failure.

Thirty people were admitted to the local hospital after eating the fish, doctors in Pascani, near Lespezi, said Friday. Most of patients were suffering from nausea and gastritis. "People initially ignored the warnings because they did not feel any symptoms right away," said Dr. Dan Cotea. Authorities were trying to recover the fish from residents and prevent them from selling them to motorists traveling along a nearby highway. As of Friday, 330 pounds had been recovered; police estimate that people collected as much as one ton of dead fish. The spill took place in one of the poorest regions of this former communist country, where the average monthly salary is just $100. Unemployment in this mostly rural area is about 20 percent, compared to the national average of 11 percent. Serban Petru, head of the national water authority, said it released extra water into the Siret to diminish cyanide levels.Metadet was fined $800 for the spill, and legal action is under consideration, Petru said.

A cyanide spill last year near Baia Mare in northwestern Romania discharged 130,000 cubic yards of cyanide-tainted water from a gold mine reservoir into river systems in Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. The incident has been described as Europe's worst river pollution disaster in a decade.