TIL Iraq 1971 poison grain disaster has left 459 dead and 100,000 brain damaged. Farmers consumed grain treated with mercury fungicide, because they didn't understand English/Spanish warnings or skull/crossbones sign

submitted by Saturday from (thefactsource.com)

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]CarlDung 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Goddamn. And we are sharing the planet with this kind of people and still think we are equal in some sense?

[–]suckitreddit 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

You say that like they're complete idiots. But this was in the 1970s. In Iraq. In a country that doesn't even speak English, or Spanish, with a completely different culture. They are also farmers. Most likely they saw the skull and thought it was about the killing of the fungus. Is it a dumb mistake? Sure. But don't pretend it's because stupidity is in their genetics. You can look at Iran's history, and find their contributions to science.