Chili peppers the cause
of mysterious Wal-Mart ills

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Star-Bulletin staff

Chemicals weren't the culprit in an exposure that sent 19 Mililani Wal-Mart employees to the hospital with burning in their eyes, nose and throats, Wal-Mart management said.

Chili peppers were to blame.

Wal-Mart manager Bryan Wall said a container the store received merchandise in has been used previously to ship chili peppers from South America to the United States.

"The shipping container company didn't clean the container out well before it turned over to us," Wall said.

Besides 19 employees who were treated and released at a hospital, 10 were treated on site, Wall said.

The source of their ailments was discovered Friday night, he said.

"They ran all kinds of chemical studies out there and couldn't come up with anything," he said. "But they weren't looking for chili peppers. They were looking for chemicals and all readings were coming up negative. That's what had everybody puzzled."

William Perry, on-scene coordinator for the state Health Department, delivered the findings to Wall with a vial full of chili pepper pieces from the container.

Employees unloading the box were affected because of chili pepper residue, Wall said.

He said he had a number of calls from concerned customers who thought they might have been exposed to something. "Everybody's very relieved when I tell them it was chili peppers."