At 9:38 on a busy Monday morning in September, firefighters arrived at a bean and grain storehouse in Guadalajara’s 130-year-old, sprawling Mercado de Abastos.
They were responding to calls for help with a toxic cloud emanating from the storage area, located at the corner of Nuez and Mercado streets in the heart of the sprawling beehive of wholesale and retail food, which is frequented by restaurant and store owners and ordinary people seeking bargains.
The rescuers evacuated about 100 people from four warehouses in total, although a handful refused to leave. The firefighters traced the cloud to a one-kilo sack of a chemical, identified variously as aluminum chloride and calcium chloride. They said the chemical is used to retard maturation of fruits and vegetables and had been mishandled. Personnel in protective gear isolated the sack inside a drum.
Cruz Verde medics who accompanied the firefighters said they treated about five people for nausea and dizziness, none of whom required hospitalization.
Some locals were dismayed to realize that chemicals requiring emergency response are used at the city’s primary source of produce. “They’re poisoning us!” one observer exclaimed.
“Should this chemical be used to prevent normal ripening of fruits and vegetables?” asked Guadalajara physician Jose Manuel Arias skeptically.
Calcium chloride is used for de-icing roads, water softening, in electrolyte drinks and as a food additive, although it is not permitted in organic crop production by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Concentrated forms are dangerous. It can burn skin, the mouth and digestive tract. It can cause vomiting, stomach pain, cardiac disturbances, low blood pressure and seizures. Inhalation requires medical treatment.
Aluminum chloride is used in deodorants and in concentrated forms causes burns. It reacts vigorously with water and readily creates harmful clouds of particles. It must be stored away from water. If inhaled, it damages the respiratory system. It is a neurotoxin.