The death toll from the contaminated milk tragedy in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari has touched 16, triggering alarm across the region. Residents in areas like Lalacheruvu, Chaudeswarnagar and Swaroopnagar
began falling ill from mid-February, reporting symptoms such as vomiting, stomach pain and an inability to urinate shortly after consuming milk supplied by a local dairy unit.
Many required dialysis and ventilator support. Laboratory tests later confirmed the presence of a toxic substance — ethylene glycol — in the milk, with doctors linking the deaths to multi-organ failure triggered by acute renal damage.
So, what exactly is ethylene glycol, why is it used, and how did it end up in something as routine as milk?
What Is Ethylene Glycol?
Ethylene glycol is a colourless, odourless chemical with a mildly sweet taste, widely used in industrial applications. It is best known as a primary ingredient in anti-freeze and engine coolants because of its ability to lower the freezing point of liquids. While it is useful in controlled environments, it is highly toxic to humans if ingested.
What Are Its Legitimate Uses?
Ethylene glycol has several legitimate industrial applications, including antifreeze and coolants in automobiles, de-icing fluids for aircraft and runways, production of polyester fibres and plastics, hydraulic brake fluids, and industrial solvents.
In all these cases, its use is strictly regulated and never intended for food or consumption.
How Does It Get Linked To Milk Adulteration?
Its presence in milk is both illegal and dangerous, but not entirely inexplicable. Ethylene glycol’s sweet taste and thick consistency can make diluted or poor-quality milk appear richer than it is. Unscrupulous suppliers may use it to artificially increase viscosity of the liquid. It also deceptively improves mouthfeel of watered-down milk while masking the inferior quality.
However, unlike more commonly reported adulterants like starch or urea, ethylene glycol is acutely toxic even in small quantities, making its use particularly hazardous.
What It Does To The Human Body
The danger of ethylene glycol lies not just in the chemical itself, but in how the body processes it. Early symptoms that occur within hours are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and dizziness. These symptoms can resemble routine food poisoning, delaying diagnosis.
Once ingested, the liver metabolises ethylene glycol into harmful compounds such as glycolic acid and oxalic acid. These disrupt the body’s acid-base balance and lead to metabolic acidosis, which means dangerously high acidity in the blood.
Next comes kidney failure. Toxic byproducts form crystals in the kidneys and block normal filtration, resulting in acute renal failure, often marked by little or no urine output. This is what has been reported in most cases in Andhra.
If untreated, this kidney failure progresses rapidly, affecting other organs like heart and brain. This in turn can lead to multi-organ failure and death within days.
Why Is It So Difficult To Detect?
The adulteration of ethylene glycol in milk is very difficult to detect without forensic tests because of its colourless and odourless nature. Its sweet taste does not raise suspicion and early symptoms are quite non-specific. Severe damage occurs after a delay, reducing chances of timely intervention.
The Bigger Problem
The Andhra Pradesh incident underscores a worrying shift in food adulteration, from dilution to toxic contamination. The use of an industrial chemical like ethylene glycol points to serious gaps in monitoring and regulation, particularly in local dairy supply chains serving large numbers of households.
Ethylene glycol may be a routine industrial chemical, but in food, it becomes a deadly poison. Its detection in milk is not just adulteration, it is a public health emergency with potentially fatal consequences.
