FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PATHOGENICITY OF OILS RELATED TO THE TOXIC OIL SYNDROME EPIDEMIC IN SPAIN

The toxic oil syndrome (TOS), which affected over 20,000 persons in Sp ain in 1981, has been linked to the consumption of aniline denatured r apeseed oil, but the precise etiologic agent is still unknown. We atte mpted to validate the use of high concentrations of oleyl anilide as a marker for oils that contain (or contained) the causal agent. We comp ared the chemical compositions of oils obtained from ill (N = 59) and unaffected (N = 70) families in 1981. Case oils had higher concentrati ons of fatty acids and sterols in which rapeseed oil is particularly r ich. In addition, case oils had more frequent and extensive contaminat ion with oleyl anilide and other fatty acid anilides. We observed a do se-response effect; risk increased sharply with increasing concentrati ons of oleyl anilide, and no control oil had more than about 825 mu g per liter of that compound. We conclude that. high concentra tions of oleyl anilide specifically mark oils that contain (or used to contain) the TOS etiologic agent.