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Students Sickened, Hospitalized by a Mysterious Stink at School

Students Sickened, Hospitalized by a Mysterious Stink at School

"It smelled like bug chemicals."

More than a dozen middle school students in Florida were sickened with some hospitalized after smelling a strong odor from an unknown source this week.

"[My son's teacher] said that it smelled like bug chemicals, really strong mosquito spray chemicals," mom Amanda Hopper told WKMG-TV, noting that a fire truck and other emergency vehicles were at Gray Middle School in Groveland, Florida, when she arrived to pick up her son, who was not sickened.

WKMG reported that at least 17 students got sick from the smell and five were brought to the hospital. The news station reported that the smell began around the same time Thursday when a nearby restaurant was tented and fumigated with a "deadly poison," identified on a sign as sulfuryl flouride.

Some students at Gray Middle School became sick after smelling an unidentified, outside odor. (Image source: WKMG-TV)

Lake schools spokeswoman Sherri Owens told the Orlando Sentinel that it was at least determined the smell was coming from somewhere outside the school.

"We were advised to shut off fresh-air intake, turn off chillers and to keep the windows to the school closed," Owens told the newspaper.

The Sentinel reported that the local fire department also believed the smell was from a pesticide as well.

Lake County Public Information Officer Elisha Pappacoda told WKMG that crews investigated the tent for leaks.

Greg Goetz, the owner of the pest control company conducting the fumigation about 100 yards away, told WKMG the chemical used is "odorless, colorless and tasteless" and that the concentration of it outside the tent was measured at "zero parts per million."

A nearby restaurant was fumigating but told the news station its tests did not reveal any leaks in the tent. (Image source: WKMG-TV)

Though unclear what exactly the source of the smell and sickening chemical was at the school, sulfuryl flouride, the fumigant, is described by Cornell University's Extension Toxicology Network as capable of causing "depression, slowed gait, slurred speech, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, drunkenness, itching, numbness, twitching and seizures." Cornell also describes this as a "colorless, odorless, compressed gas."

Of the students taken to the hospital, the Sentinel reported that they were in stable condition and expected to recover.

Front page image via Shutterstock.

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