Utah Woman Injured After Drinking Sweet Tea Laced with Lye Speaks, Calls for Change

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(SALT LAKE CITY) — The Utah woman who was poisoned after being served tea lace with lye said on Friday that dangerous chemicals should have colors or markers that ensure they can’t be mistaken for food ingredients.

Jan Harding spoke at a Friday news conference. “It’s not my nature to be made at people, it’s not my nature to be vengeful,” she said, adding that she holds no ill will against the restaurant worker who poured the lye into her beverage.

She may have been saved by the fact that she was drinking through a straw, meaning only a small amount of the drink — and the lye — went down her throat before she felt the effects.

Lye is used as a heavy-duty cleaner. Police believe an employee accidentally mixed the cleaner into the tea.

Harding was immediately rushed to a hospital with severe burns to her mouth and throat. She was the only individual injured, employees dumped the vat of iced tea after her injury.

“I asked God if I wasn’t going to make it through this…if he would send an angel to help me with…because it was just so hard,” Harding said Friday.

She hopes that the restaurant industry will take action in response to her accident.


Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

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