RIVIERE-DU-LOUP, Que. -- A Quebec coroner has concluded that two sisters found dead in their hotel room in Thailand in 2012 were probably intoxicated by phosphine, a strong pesticide.
The same pesticide was also believed to have been responsible for the recent deaths of two children in northern Alberta.
Coroner Renee Roussel said Monday the fact Audrey, 20, and Noemi Belanger, 26, were both very sick and appeared to have the same symptoms led her to conclude they suffered the same health problem -- intoxication.
Roussel's report describes phosphine as a pesticide that "kills everything that lives, everything that breathes."
She said it is officially forbidden to use phosphine to fumigate hotel rooms in Thailand, but that it might in fact still be used.