Bhubaneswar, Dec. 5: A swig to quench thirst turned fatal for a university student in Sambalpur early yesterday.

A careless sip of Formalin solution, contained in a soft drink bottle, killed Kranti Behera, a 22-year-old postgraduate student of Sambalpur University yesterday. His friend Rabi Sankar Sahu, who had a swig as well, is fighting for his life.

The time was 4.15 am and Behera, a third semester student of Life Science, was sitting inside a tourist bus along with his classmates. The students were on their way to Chilika Lake for a study tour.

Feeling thirsty, he searched for water inside his bag and his fumbling hands found a soft drink bottle, which contained Formalin.

As Formalin is a colourless liquid, Behera mistook it for water and took a sip. Soon after, he felt a burning sensation in his mouth, throat and stomach and started vomiting.

By the time he was taken to VSS Medical College and Hospital, Behera was dead. The doctors who conducted the post-mortem found that his liver, heart, brain, kidney and spleen were damaged.

The Formalin solution was meant to preserve organisms that Behera hoped to find in Chilika Lake.

Behera?s friend Sahu, who had come to see him off, had also taken a sip of the solution. But he fortunately did not swallow it and immediately squirted it after finding the taste peculiar. Sahu was admitted in the same hospital in critical condition.

Later, the study tour was cancelled and the friends and teachers of Behera held a mourning session. Sambalpur police later lodged a case of unnatural death and seized the bottle, which contained the solution.

Formalin is a toxic, flammable and explosive liquid, which is used as a raw material in the production of plastic, besides being a well-known embalming fluid and a disinfectant.

Doctors say if swallowed, Formalin may be fatal and can cause death in hours or days.

Exposure to Formalin could also result in blindness and irritation of the skin and in the respiratory tract. Repeated or prolonged exposure can also increase the risk of cancer.