Behind the poisoning of a 1-year-old baby girl: Why can housewives buy thallium online? The state has issued a notice to strengthen security management

A few days ago, Red Star News reported on the thallium poisoning case of a 1-year-old baby girl in Fujian, which attracted widespread attention. It is understood that the thallium nitrate used by the aunt of the baby girl in the crime was obtained from online purchases.

The poisoner in this case was a housewife and was initially Chinese. Why is thallium so readily available?

Screenshot of the video on the day of Mao's first birthday banquet Courtesy of the interviewee

The Red Star News reporter noticed that according to the current "Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals (2015 Edition)", thallium nitrate and other thallium salts are hazardous chemicals, but only thallium sulfate is a highly toxic chemical. On May 18, Hou Yingtian, director of the Safety Emergency Center of the Safety Technology Research Institute of Southwest Jiaotong University, said in an interview with a reporter from Red Star News that according to the catalog, individuals or units purchase thallium nitrate from hazardous chemicals business units that have obtained legal procedures or qualifications, and there are no relevant laws and regulations requiring them to go through relevant procedures.

Red Star News noted that in December 2022, seven departments including the Ministry of Emergency Management jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals Sold on the Internet" to strengthen the management of information release of hazardous chemicals on the Internet. Express delivery of hazardous chemicals is expressly prohibited by the state.

Purchase thallium nitrate from legal hazardous chemicals business units:

There are no relevant laws and regulations requiring relevant formalities

According to the Chinese Expert Consensus on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute Thallium Poisoning (2021), thallium has been used in many fields since its discovery, such as treating certain diseases and making rodenticides. Thallium preparations have been banned in most countries since the 70s of the 20th century due to the multiple cases of poisoning reported. At present, the number of patients with acute thallium poisoning at home and abroad is increasing. From 1965 to 2017, 375 cases of thallium poisoning were reported in the domestic literature.

Red Star News previously reported that during the Spring Festival of 2022, a 1-year-old baby girl in Fujian was poisoned by thallium. The police found out that his eldest aunt Wang had poisoned the milk powder, and the death of his father Lin Mouwei half a year ago was also found to be caused by colchicine poisoning. The 25 grams of thallium nitrate involved in the case were purchased from a company in Xi'an by Wang at a cost of 1,700 yuan through WeChat on his mobile phone in January 2022.

The witness testimony in the first-instance verdict of this case shows that the thallium nitrate was purchased by the above-mentioned company in two hands, and the supplier shipped it directly through the courier company.

The business scope of a company registered in Xi'an includes the sales of pre-packaged food, the cultivation of Chinese herbal medicines, agricultural and sideline products, etc., and does not involve chemical industry. Its official website says that it is an integrated production enterprise of industry and trade, committed to the fine processing of Chinese herbal medicines and agricultural products. However, the testimony of the company's sales supervisor in the verdict showed that the company was a trading company, and the salesmen each conducted their own business online, and after receiving orders, they purchased them from other related domestic companies.

The intermediary company is a company in Jiangsu, whose official website claims to have focused on the production of biochemical chemical reagents for many years. But the testimony of the company's purchasers shows that the company is a trading company, has no physical factory, and has regular suppliers.

According to the testimony of the salesman of the intermediary company, a company in Xi'an sought to purchase thallium nitrate reagent through QQ, and she first "told the other party that this is a precursor to drugs, and the company does not sell it", but after checking the websites of the company and the supplier and the list of dangerous goods promulgated by the state, it was judged that the product was a non-precursor and explosive product, and could be sold normally, so a sales contract was signed.

According to the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals, the purchase of highly toxic chemicals and hazardous chemicals that are prone to explosion requires corresponding permits or supporting documents. Individuals are not allowed to purchase highly toxic chemicals (except pesticides that are highly toxic chemicals) and hazardous chemicals that can be easily made into explosives. It is forbidden to sell highly toxic chemicals (except pesticides that are highly toxic chemicals) and hazardous chemicals that can be easily made into explosives to individuals.

Red Star News noted that in the "Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals (2015 Edition)", various thallium salts such as thallium metal and thallium nitrate, gasoline and anhydrous alcohol are listed in the "Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals (2015 Edition)", but except for thallium sulfate, none of them belong to highly toxic chemicals, nor do they belong to hazardous chemicals and precursor chemicals that are easy to make explosives.

Hou Yingtian said that according to the provisions of the catalogue, individuals or units purchase thallium nitrate from hazardous chemicals business units that have obtained legal procedures or qualifications, and there are no relevant laws and regulations requiring them to go through relevant procedures, nor do they require operators to record the variety, quantity, and use. However, if the purchasing individual or unit has hazardous chemicals business behavior, the hazardous chemicals business unit shall not sell hazardous chemicals to individuals and units without relevant qualification licenses without relevant licenses.

Red Star News inquired on the official website of the Ministry of Emergency Management about the hazardous chemicals business licenses of intermediary companies and suppliers, but did not inquire about the current valid license of a company in Xi'an that sold thallium nitrate to Wang.

Red Star News also noted that the "Catalogue of Highly Toxic Chemicals (2015 Edition)" has been narrowed from more than 300 in the 2002 edition to more than 100 kinds, and the 2002 edition of thallium metal, thallium oxide, thallium oxide, thallium carbonate, thallium acetate and thallium malonate have been deleted.

A number of cases of online thallium shopping causing tragedy sounded the alarm bell:

There are risks in the online sales of hazardous chemicals

Red Star News retrieval found that in the 2007 thallium poisoning case of a university student Chang Mouqing, the 2009 suicide of a 23-year-old woman in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province by taking thallium due to low self-esteem, and the 2012 thallium poisoning case in Anqing, Anhui Province, thallium salt was purchased from the Internet.

According to media reports at the time, in the case of Chang Mouqing's thallium nitrate poisoning, the thallium dealer was criminally detained by the police on suspicion of the crime of causing an accident with dangerous goods; In the case of the Wujiang woman's suicide, the woman was rejected several times at first, and then purchased thallium nitrate from a staff member of a trading company selling chemical supplies under the pretext of conducting experiments, and the Shanghai man who sold thallium was later detained; In the Anqing thallium poisoning case, the poisoner purchased thallium bromide from a company in Beijing that had not obtained a license to operate hazardous chemicals. Red Star News inquired from the judgment document online that the corresponding verdict of the Anqing case shows that thallium bromide was traded by the poisoner through an online platform and shipped by courier.

Red Star News also retrieved a 2017-2018 case in Xiangtan, Hunan Province, for the crime of releasing dangerous substances in retaliation for poisoning thallium acetate and causing poisoning to many people. The poisoner contacted the customer service staff of a company through its online platform to purchase thallium salt, and the bank remitted cash and received it through ZTO Express. The poisoners had previously contacted two companies through QQ to purchase toxic substances, including "thallium bromide". In a 2016 case of thallium sulfate poisoning in Zibo, Shandong Province, the poisoner purchased poison from a local chemical reagent company offline.

Xinhua Daily Telegraph reported in February 2022 on the safety risks of online shopping for hazardous chemicals, and some websites were flooded with all kinds of transaction information. The Rule of Law Daily also reported in February 2023 that some e-commerce platforms openly sell solutions with ammonia concentrations of more than 10% and dangerous chemicals such as high-concentration hydrogen peroxide, as well as the sale of toxic substances such as rat poison and pesticides without a license.

On May 17, the Red Star News reporter found a website that displayed the sale of thallium sulfate, and the customer service said that it was not for personal sales, but only for companies. When the reporter inquired about the company's purchase process, the other party said that it was not clear, it was a partition sale, and it was to be transferred to the staff in the corresponding area.

The reporter contacted another website, and the reporter called customer service to ask if thallium sulfate was sold, and the other party replied: "We don't sell it now." Qualifications are required, and we don't have qualifications now, so we can't do it. ”

On the same day, the reporter searched for "thallium" on Taobao and found a store called "Junteng Chemical" selling thallium standard liquid. On May 18, when the reporter checked again, he found that the store was closed.

The online publication of dangerous goods information requires relevant permits or filings

Express delivery of hazardous chemicals is expressly prohibited by the state

For the Internet trading of dangerous goods, Red Star News noted that in 2015, the Ministry of Public Security and other six departments jointly issued the "Internet Dangerous Goods Information Release Management Regulations", requiring dangerous goods practitioners to obtain Internet information services in accordance with the relevant licenses or filings, before publishing dangerous goods information on the website of the unit, shall not publish dangerous goods information and establish relevant links in the Internet application services outside the website of the unit, and also stipulates the obligations of access service providers and network service providers.

In December 2022, when the thallium poisoning case occurred in Fuzhou, seven departments, including the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals Sold on the Internet (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The "Notice" pointed out that some units or individuals illegally sell hazardous chemicals through the Internet without permission; Some e-commerce platforms or websites are not strictly audited, and the merchants who settle in the market release information on the sale of hazardous chemicals at will, which poses major safety risks.

The Notice reiterates the relevant provisions of the Provisions on the Administration of Information Release of Dangerous Goods on the Internet from the perspective of hazardous chemicals, and clarifies the obligations of e-commerce platforms to manage, verify, inspect and clean up and remove from the shelves, and requires timely reporting to the relevant competent authorities. The "Notice" emphasizes that all relevant departments at all levels should seriously investigate and deal with the illegal sale of hazardous chemicals on the Internet, and strengthen the supervision of the whole chain of online sales of hazardous chemicals. The emergency management department shall supervise and urge enterprises to improve the information management ledger of hazardous chemicals, so that the source of hazardous chemicals can be traced and the destination can be followed.

Hou Yingtian said that if it is a dangerous goods business unit that has obtained legal procedures or qualifications, it can publish dangerous goods information on the Internet.

Express delivery of hazardous chemicals is expressly prohibited by the state. As early as 2007, the State Post Bureau issued the "Guidance Catalogue and Handling Measures for Prohibited Items (Trial)", which not only included hazardous chemicals and other corrosive items, but also specifically mentioned thallium in the "strong poison"; The 2017 update of the Regulations on the Administration of Prohibited Items mentions thallium.

In the past, there have been many news reports of accidents caused by the smuggling of dangerous goods such as hazardous chemicals. According to previous media reports, in November 2013, one person was killed and several people were poisoned by a leak during the delivery of YTO's "poison express".

The State Post Bureau has also repeatedly deployed to strengthen the inspection of express delivery companies. The 2022 "Notice" also emphasizes that the postal administration department should urge enterprises to implement the "three systems" of real-name receipt and mailing, receipt and delivery inspection, and security inspection, and strictly prevent and control security risks in the mail and delivery process. (Source丨Red Star News)