Powder of Death

Bonny, bouncing Franc,ois Lejeune, six months old, was one of those babies whose pink bottoms are easily irritated. Like many other French mothers, Mrs. Lejeune sprinkled the tender parts with Baumol baby powder. But instead of getting better, tiny Franc,ois got redder, ran a fever and cried incessantly. The doctor said it was 1) colic, 2) teething, 3) oversensitive skin. Mrs. Lejeune rocked the baby, carried him about, bathed him and dusted him with Baumol. But one day poor Franc,ois' skin burst out into big abscesses. Rushed to the hospital, he was given oxygen, but died a few hours later. The doctors thought the cause of death was meningitis; then they decided it was septicemia. They had no idea what had caused the violent skin eruptions. ,

In the next six months, the doctors had plenty of opportunity to study the illness. In the wine-growing villages around Bordeaux and farther north in the fishing and farming villages of Brittany, there were scores of sick, red-rashed babies. Some, like little Franc,ois, died. The doctors, casting around for a cause of the illness, advised mothers to stop using this or that medication. But it was pure luck that finally pointed to the cause. Three Breton doctors with a dozen sick babies on their hands noted that all the babies had been treated with Baumol. They reported their suspicions to the ministry of health, which visited the Baumol makers, the respected Daney Laboratory in Bordeaux. Samples of Baumol taken from the factory, when analysed by the ministry, proved to be harmless. But the Brittany doctors had spread the word about Baumol far & wide. A village retailer, afraid to sell any more of the stuff, returned a shipment to the manufacturers. A sample was analysed and found to contain a deadly poison, arsenic acid anhydride.

The alarm went out all over France. Police began confiscating retail stocks, while local constables in remote hamlets rolled their drums to bring out the villagers, then solemnly read them a warning about Baumol. Jacques Cazenave, 52, director of the Daney Laboratory and father of two children, was arrested and charged with manslaughter. His explanation: One of his drug suppliers must have sent him arsenic acid anhydride instead of zinc oxide. But the next question on many lips was: how many babies in the eleven months since the death of Franc,ois Lejeune had been hurt by the poisoned Baumol? Press estimates put the number of dead at 50, the seriously ill at 100.

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