Manufacturing processes at two French rapeseed oil companies: Possible relationships to toxic oil syndrome in Spain

Abstract

The toxic oil syndrome (TOS) epidemic that occurred in Spain in spring 1981 has been associated with the consumption of rapeseed oil that was denatured with aniline for industrial use but diverted for human consumption. The precise aetiologic agent in the oil responsible for the outbreak has not been identified. To learn more about possible contaminants and how the contamination might have occurred, we visited two French companies that process rapeseed oil and that were identified in Spanish administrative and judicial records as the ones exporting aniline-denatured rapeseed oil to Spain in 1981. With the apparently full and voluntary co-operation of personnel at both companies, we reviewed the processes involved in manufacturing, treating and transporting rapeseed oil, and we have summarized the information provided to us. Of particular importance is the finding that oil exported to Spain was taken from stock, the rest of which was sold for human consumption in the French domestic market, apparently without any adverse health effects. The differences between the oil exported to Spain and the oil sold as food in France were that aniline equivalent to 2% of the weight of the oil was added to most of the Spanish oil but not to that sold in France, and that contamination of the Spanish oil may have occurred in the tank trucks used for transportation to Spain, which had previously carried industrial chemicals. There is no assurance that the trucks were cleaned appropriately for transporting a food product before the oil was loaded for the journey to Spain. Since the clinical manifestations of TOS are not those of aniline toxicity, we conclude that the aetiological agent of TOS is likely to be one of the following: (1) a contaminant in the aniline, (2) a contaminant introduced during transportation, (3) a reaction product of normal oil components or materials used in refining with either aniline or the potential contaminants mentioned under (1) or (2) above.