Children hospitalised after drinking dishwashing liquid

THIRTEEN children from a public kindergarten in Nicosia were taken to hospital by ambulance yesterday after a teaching assistant mistakenly served up water containing dishwashing detergent.

Although it was not clear how many children drank the tainted water, all 13 from the Ayios Omoloyites kindergarten were treated at the First Aid as a precaution. The incident happened shortly before midday.

Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades said the error was due to negligence on the part of one of the teaching assistants after the detergent somehow got mixed up with the drinking water.
After being examined and treated at First Aid, the children were allowed to return to school, the Minister said. The children were accompanied by two teachers, who remained with them throughout and all parents were informed, he added.

“The Minister of Education and Culture wishes declare that he is particularly sensitive on issues health and safety of children and will examine in great detail the reasons for this incident,” said Georgiades. “The ministry also wishes to assure parents that this was an isolated incident which should not influence the positive work that public kindergartens are doing.”

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