Alaska Children Suffer Burning Sensations in Mouth, Throat After Being Served Sealant Instead of Milk

A dozen children from Alaska along with two adults were served floor sealant instead of milk during a daycare summer program, causing them to experience burning sensations in their mouths and throats.

The incident, which occurred at an Alaska elementary school, was apparently the result of containers being mixed up, said the school district superintendent on Wednesday. At least one of the children was treated at a hospital after the Tuesday morning incident in Juneau.

Serving of Floor Sealant

Superintendent Bridget Weiss said that Juneau police were leading the investigation of how the mix-up of the containers occurred. The official said that the investigation was not to label the incident as criminal or have mal-intent, but rather, to have a detailed timeline of what happened.

The incident happened while students in the daycare program at Sit' Eeti Shaanax-Glacier Valley Elementary in Alaska's capital city were served breakfast. The program was designed for children aged five to 12 years, as per ABC News.

A contractor was responsible for providing all food items including milk from a dispenser and was served by staff. The breakfast items were put on trays, which students then took to their tables to eat.

Shortly after eating, the children began complaining that the milk tasted bad and caused burning sensations in their mouths and throats. Later, the school district and contract personnel looked at the container label and discovered the clear plastic bag of milk that was placed in the dispenser was actually a floor sealant that resembles milk.

According to The Hill, people in the area quickly contacted poison control officials and the parents of the children. Two of the kids who were picked up by their parents may have sought medical advice, the district said.

Consequential Mix-Up

Weiss noted that the milk and the floor sealant, which was also a milky, white substance, came in large plastic bags that were stored inside cardboard boxes. The pouch for the milk is removed from the box and placed inside the dispenser to serve with meals instead of in cartons.

The two products were stored at a district commodity storage site that was located outside of the school campus. The superintendent said that somehow, boxes with sealant in large pouches were "stored or moved on the same pallet as large pouches of milk that were also in cardboard boxes.

The official noted that they were unsure what exactly led to the mix-up but noted that the milk and the sealant were all put on the same pallet. That pallet then got delivered and the assumption was that it was milk because that is what the staff thought was being delivered.

The sealant gave off no odor or chemical smell but school standards dictate that any chemical used must have a low ingestion risk. The remaining sealant was later removed from the school and placed in hazardous storage.

NANA Management Services released a statement saying that after it learned of the incident, it immediately dispatched a safety team to the state capital. The company said that they were in the midst of a comprehensive investigation that will look at every contributing factor to determine exactly what happened and to identify potential safety measures, Sky News reported.