14 Taipei students fall ill after eating tung nuts, one under observation

Taipei, Oct. 1 (CNA) Fourteen junior high school students at Taipei Huaxing High School were rushed to local hospitals Thursday after eating nuts from tung trees on the school campus during the noon break, with 13 expected to be discharged by the evening and one remaining under observation.

Citing accounts provided by students, school president Tzeng Teng-lung (曾騰瀧) said the students ate the tung nuts out of curiosity because they resembled almonds, according to a Liberty Times report.

One student ate a nut first and the others followed suit. They later began feeling unwell and alerted a teacher, who arranged for them to be taken to two hospitals, he said.

Among the students, 13 are boys and one girl, according to the school.

In a press release, Chin Chia-yi (秦家翊), a pediatrician at Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, said the hospital received 10 of the students, most of whom had eaten only a small number of tung nuts, while one had eaten seven.

The students experienced nausea and gastrointestinal discomfort, with one vomiting, but their symptoms have since improved and they are now able to eat, Chin said.

All 10 students were discharged after receiving intravenous fluids, undergoing blood tests and receiving dietary advice, according to the release.

The other four students were taken to Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where one student who ate eight tung nuts was being kept for one to two days of observation, while the other three were expected to return home later Thursday, hospital Vice Superintendent Lee Wui-chiang (李偉強) said.

Huaxing High School said it will launch a campus-wide safety campaign for students and staff, reiterating that plants and fruit on campus should not be picked or eaten, local media reported.

The school said it will step up inspections to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Toxicity and treatment

Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌), director of the Department of Occupational Medicine and Clinical Toxicology at the hospital, said tung nuts contain tung oil, tung acid and toxic saponins that can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Overall, tung nuts are not considered highly toxic, he said, adding that no life-threatening cases caused by their accidental ingestion have been reported in Taiwan.

Symptoms may begin 30 to 45 minutes after ingestion, with no specific antidote available for tung nut poisoning and treatment focusing mainly on managing symptoms, he said.

Similar cases reported in 2024

Tung trees are common in Taiwan, and Thursday's poisoning was not the first such incident.

Local media reported two similar cases in 2024, involving five junior high school students in Miaoli in January and four elementary school students in Taoyuan in November.

All the students involved in the two incidents recovered after receiving treatment, with some requiring gastric lavage, according to local media.

After the Taoyuan incident, Taoyuan City Councilor Huang Jean-ping (黃敬平) said he received complaints from parents questioning why the trees were on campus.

The school subsequently put up warning signs beneath the tree to alert students to the potential danger, Public Television Service reported at the time.