The son of Ergocha Teahouse owner was charged for frustrated murder after a customer and his father died from drinking the milk tea that the owner blended.
As per MPD, the poison that was found in the milk tea is oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is a bleaching and cleaning agent it is classified as health hazard 3 under the HMIS (Hazardous Materials Identification System). It can be purchased easily for the mere reason that it is also commonly used as laundry bleaching agent, you can buy it even in “tingi” or pa lima limang piso lang.
What struck me is that according to the msds (material safety data sheet) of oxalic acid the LD50 of this substance is around 7500 mg/kg in rats. I am not a toxicologist but to my estimate a 50 kg person needed to ingest around 50 grams of the substance to cause death. To put it on a layman’s term a person need to ingest around 5 tablespoon of oxalic acid to cause death. If this is the case then it is highly probable that the oxalic acid was mistaken as sugar by the owner and it is what he used in blending the tea.
Another question is why did Lloyd Abrigo, the son of the tea house owner, brought oxalic acid in the Tea house. For what purpose is the oxalic acid.
Hopefully in the near future every thing will be revealed for the benefit of the victim and victim’s family.