Canada · 19 d ago
SegLig · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pesticide, not food, may have killed a Quebec medical graduate in Istanbul
Fatih district, Istanbul
Turkey
Bérengère Deveaux-Cattino died in Istanbul on Jun 17, 2025, at the end of a trip to celebrate finishing medical school, and a Quebec coroner is investigating. A Turkish autopsy blamed a chicken dish; the friend who fell ill with her survived.
"This is not food poisoning," said forensic pathologist Şebnem Korur Fincancı after reading the Turkish autopsy report, pointing to vomiting without diarrhea and a very fast decline. She concluded it was rather pesticide poisoning.
— Şebnem Korur Fincancı, forensic pathologist
The suspected poison
phosphine
Aluminum phosphide, a pesticide Turkey restricts to certified farm use, releases a highly toxic gas, phosphine, on contact with moisture. Its vague symptoms mimic food poisoning, and it is hard to detect.
The two friends stayed in a hotel about 100 metres from one where a family of four died of phosphine in November 2025, after an illegal fumigation against bedbugs. That hotel's owner and the exterminators were convicted of criminal negligence causing death.
And us?
Travelling to Turkey
Global Affairs Canada updated its Turkey travel advice this summer, warning of poisonings linked to chemical pesticides in tourist lodgings in Istanbul. Travellers are told to make sure their room is well ventilated and to see a doctor for unusual symptoms.
