The cooking oil sold as olive oil that killed hundreds

A closer look

Trying to save a few pesetas on kitchen supplies in 1981 led to a massive casualty event that practically mimicked a biological terror attack. Unscrupulous street vendors in Spain sold cheap industrial rapeseed oil—originally meant for machinery and denatured with toxic aniline—by deceptively labeling it as pure olive oil. The fraudulent fat triggered a devastating autoimmune-like reaction, killing over 600 people and leaving thousands more permanently crippled with severe neurological and lung damage.