Precise figures are not available for the number of children who have been poisoned by ingesting cleaning fluids used to cleanse homes before the holiday, but medical personnel said that every hospital in Israel had dealt with an increase in cases.

The Israeli Health Ministry had tried to head off the danger by issuing a series of warnings and guidelines. In the fortnight preceding the week-long holiday, homes are traditionally given a rigorous cleansing to ensure that every speck of leavened foodstuff is removed, in accordance with the Torah.

The nationwide cleaning frenzy, when children are on school holiday, leaves youngsters at risk from swallowing cleaning fluids or detergents, or from inhaling toxic fumes from improperly mixed chemical agents. Cases are rarely fatal. Accidental child-poisoning caused by cleaning products is not uncommon the world over. But the annual spike experienced before the Passover is unique to Israel and directly attributable to home-cleaning. There is also an increased incidence of drug-poisonings because medicine cabinets are cleared out and their contents carelessly discarded.

“The increase started appearing a few days ago,” Ron Krumer, a spokesman for Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, said. “You’ll find the same story in every hospital in Israel.”

Last year in the week before Passover — a festival that commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt — the National Poison Control Centre recorded a 58 per cent increase, to 313 cases, of children younger than 6 being poisoned. Cases are rarely fatal.

Most accidents happen when families store chemical agents within easy reach of toddlers, or use extra-strong, inappropriate chemicals, such as oven cleaner or limescale remover, to wipe shelves.

“Israeli toddlers are like those everywhere — they’re very curious,” said Yona Amitai, a toxicology expert at the Health Ministry, who has studied the poisoning phenomenon. “They tend to put things into their mouths, and a sip or two can do them harm.”

The Torah commands that homes be cleared of all leavened products and that only unleavened crackers, or matzo, can be eaten during Passover.

Jews in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods flocked into the streets yesterday after clearing the last of the leavened foodstuffs from their homes, burning it in rubbish skip bonfires to ensure that they complied with the letter of the Torah.

ANCIENT RITUAL

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