Police say a woman was in extremely critical condition after drinking sweet tea laced with an industrial cleaning chemical... (Associated Press) 
 
 Attorney Paxton Guymon holds a photograph of Jim and Jan Harding during a news conference in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014. Winkler said a "highly toxic industrial cleaning chemical" was mixed into the ice tea, which was left in a dispenser that is accessible to patrons. Jan Harding, 67, was dining at Dickey's Barbecue Pit in South Jordan around noon Sunday when she sipped the poisoned drink, according to local police. Investigators and the restaurant manager have told the Hardings that a worker mistook the cleaning product for sugar and accidentally mixed large quantities of it into the iced-tea dispenser, Guymon said. South Jordan police are still investigating how the chemical ended up in the sweet-tea container, but they think it was accidental, police Cpl. Sam Winkler told the Los Angeles Times. Police do not believe anyone else was hurt, and Winkler said Harding was one of the only customers inside the restaurant at the time. Dickey's Barbecue Pit is a Texas-based chain restaurant with hundreds of locations spanning the Southwest. The chemical, which is used to clean grease off of frying equipment, contains sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye, Winkler said. Harding, who is married with three children and six grandchildren, remains in critical condition at the University of Utah Hospital's burn unit. The restaurant has remained open since the incident, said Jeff Oaks, Food Protection Bureau manager at the Salt Lake County Health Department.
– An employee at Dickey's Barbecue Pit in South Jordan, Utah, appears to have mistaken lye, an odorless chemical found in drain cleaners, for sugar, and made a batch of "sweet" tea with it. Jan Harding, a 67-year-old grandmother out to lunch with her husband and friends after church Sunday, took one sip and immediately spit it out, saying, "I think I just drank acid," reports the AP. Her mouth immediately began to burn, and when her husband rushed her to a local hospital, officials there were so worried they airlifted her to the University of Utah's burn unit, reports the Los Angeles Times. Harding has been in critical condition since. She has been intubated, has limited movement of her head and neck, and isn't yet able to speak. "It's disturbing that this kind of toxic, poisonous material would be in the food-prep area and somehow find its way into the iced tea vat," her attorney says. "I don't know how something like that can happen." Harding appears to be the first and only victim, and a local police official says it's fortunate the restaurant wasn't busy: "If someone had swallowed it, it could have been potentially fatal," he says. Adds a chemistry expert, "It would start dissolving your insides." The chemical, found in products like Drano and also used to de-grease deep fryers, is also called sodium hydroxide and was added to the tea in powder form. Doctors are still trying to determine if it lacerated Harding's esophagus or stomach. The restaurant is participating in the investigation and remains open for business. (Check out what one doctor laced her lover's coffee with.)