Five elderly residents in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, were hospitalized after collectively showing abnormal symptoms following a meal of chicken soup cooked with hemp seeds.
According to police and fire authorities Friday, five residents in their 80s received emergency treatment the previous evening after eating chicken soup together at a house in Dosan-myeon, Andong, complaining of dizziness, vomiting and difficulty breathing.
The residents had gathered for the meal at the invitation of a fellow villager. Symptoms appeared between about 30 minutes and two hours after the meal. A 119 rescue team that received the report responded to the scene and transported the residents to nearby hospitals.
The patients were treated at hospitals in the Andong and Yeongju areas, and most are now reported to have improved. Some are said to have returned home after treatment.
Health authorities are focusing on the fact that hemp seeds were included in the chicken soup the residents consumed. While hemp seeds themselves are sometimes used as food or as a health supplement ingredient, consuming them with the husks not removed is known to potentially cause side effects such as dizziness, vomiting and hallucinations.
Authorities also explained that hemp seeds have a high fat content, and excessive consumption by the elderly can cause digestive symptoms such as abdominal pain or diarrhea.
Police have secured the food consumed by the residents and gastric lavage fluid for analysis to determine the precise cause. They have requested a component test from the National Forensic Service and are intensively examining the amount of hemp seeds used and whether husks were mixed in.
Investigative authorities plan to examine the specific circumstances, including the possibility of food poisoning and whether cannabis components are detected, as soon as the test results are available.
"As of now, all the residents who ate together are understood to be recovering," a police official said. "We will confirm the precise cause of the incident based on the National Forensic Service's analysis results."
