Toxic File: Forgotten Pesticides Can Be Most Dangerous

Fred had finally agreed to clean out the garage after several years of accumulating clutter and his wife Jodie’s coaxing. Heck, there might be tag sale material buried in all that junk she said, knowing that he would get more interested if there was some money involved. Jodie was thrilled at Fred’s garage pronouncement and decided to bake him his favorite pie. The garage was not well organized and so Fred spent most of that morning sorting through bric-a-brac of all shapes and sizes. He reached up to a top shelf to get down a long piece of 2 x 4, and saw too late that a bottle on that shelf was being pushed over the edge by the displaced board. In another instant the bottle was tumbling down, hit the cement floor with a thud and the neck broke freeing the oily liquid. Disgusted, Fred said to himself this is why it’s better to stick to the couch on weekends! The liquid smelled pretty bad but it was out of his way. He decided to make more progress before lunch and deal with it later. After about a half hour he couldn’t put up with the odor anymore and so went over and picked up the broken bottle. In this dark corner of the garage Fred could not read the bottle very well. It said something about mixing instructions for killing beetles and other garden insects. He didn’t even remember buying this stuff. Maybe it was left here from the previous owners.

After putting the bottle back down Fred noticed the oily, odorous liquid on his hands. He made a mental note to wash his hands thoroughly before touching things in the house. He thought Jodie would appreciate his not getting this stuff all over the house. Finding some old rags he sopped up the liquid. As he straightened up, a wave of nausea and dizziness passed through him and he felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. His vision was no longer clear and a tremor was taking hold of his limbs. Becoming alarmed Fred looked down at the blurry rags emitting a heavy odor a few feet from his face. He dropped the rags and staggering from the back corner of the garage he knocked over a bike and fell on top of it. Gasping for air he summoned the strength to free himself from the bike and crawl towards the open garage door. Reaching the driveway he laid there moaning for help.

Jodie was horrified at the site of Fred’s prone body and feeble cries. A heart attack? Stroke? She raced outside as she dialed 911 on her cell phone. Fred was green and shaking, tears streaming from his eyes, shallow and weak breathing, and he reeked of some awful chemical odor. When the ambulance arrived the EMTs saw Fred’s desperate condition and heard what Jodie knew. Smelling him and the garage they realized he must have spilled a highly toxic chemical, his symptoms being consistent with insecticide poisoning. They knew that if they handled Fred in this state, they and their ambulance would be contaminated. But they had to act quickly; Fred was in serious condition and his exposure was continuing due to the contamination of his clothes and skin. Organophosphates easily pass through the skin and attack the nervous system.

Fortunately they had an antidote on the ambulance. Atropine. They called the poison control center to be sure of how to proceed. Following instructions, the EMTs donned protective suits and dosed Fred with the antidote. They stripped off his clothes and scrubbed him in copious amounts of soap and water. Finally, they wrapped him in a medical gown and whisked him off to the hospital.

Fred survived that severe pesticide poisoning, returning to normal within a few weeks. The medical toxicologist said that the bottle he broke contained a potent organophosphate insecticide that is not used much anymore. Cleaning up spills of such pesticides requires protective clothing and a mask to prevent inhaling the chemical. The toxicologist said Fred was unlucky that he had broken the bottle, but lucky that the garage door was open. If not, Fred may not have survived.