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Deaths Due to Asphyxiant Gases
Published in Sudhir K. Gupta, Forensic Pathology of Asphyxial Deaths, 2022
CO poisoning relatively common in temperate countries as compare to tropical countries where coal gas is used for heating and illumination. Signs and symptoms may vary according to the metabolic state and ability of a person to withstand the lack of oxygen. This is the reason why with the same level of exposure of CO some people recover and live while it became lethal to others. Patients with comorbid condition like anemia, cerebral sclerosis, coronary artery disease and pulmonary disease are less able to tolerate the compromise due to decreased oxygen carrying capacity of blood. Acute poisoning is mostly accidental in manner. Defective exhaust system of a motor may cause rapid acute poisoning by CO, especially when the window panes are closed. By preventing the combination of oxygen with hemoglobin CO is the perfect asphyxiant. Organ with high metabolic and oxygen demands are most sensitive to the effects of CO poisoning. Severity of CO poisoning (Table 8.1) depends on duration of exposure, amount of CO in the inhaled air, and general health of the affected individual. Although CO poisoning is harmful for all systems but most frequently CNS and cardiovascular systems are affected (Table 8.2).4 Most common and first symptom appear is related to CNS, i.e., headache.9
Monographs of Topical Drugs that Have Caused Contact Allergy/Allergic Contact Dermatitis
Published in Anton C. de Groot, Monographs in Contact Allergy, 2021
Coal tar is one of the by-products when coal is carbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas. It is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity. Coal tars are complex and variable mixtures of phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heterocyclic compounds. Coal tar products are used to relief itch, irritation, redness, dryness, scaling, and flaking of the skin caused by certain skin diseases. Coal tar ointment is a keratolytic. It works by slowing bacterial growth and loosening and softening scales and crust. Indeed, topical coal tar products are widely used in the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, although the level of evidence of their efficacy is not strong (3) and people dislike their odor, messy application, and staining of clothing. The short-term side effects of coal tar pharmaceutical preparations are folliculitis, irritation, phototoxicity and contact allergy. Occupational dermal exposure to coal tar and coal tar pitches can be the cause of phototoxic reactions, irritation and burn, allergic dermatitis, folliculitis, occupational acne, atrophy of the epidermis, hyperpigmentation, and malignancies (22).
Environmental Inhaled Agents and Their Relation to Lung Cancer
Published in Jacob Loke, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Inhalation Injuries, 2020
Occupation cohorts. Occupational exposure to tar, coal gas, and combustion products from coke ovens is associated with a two- to threefold excess of lung cancer (Shy and Struba, 1982). Extrapolating these occupational risks to the general population is untenable, yet when one considers that even though these workers experience concentrations of these substances (using BaP as an index) 10-100 times those found in ambient air and their risk factor was only two- to threefold, the extremely low risk for ambient air is apparent. An increase in lung cancer may, however, occur in the special situation where residential area is in close proximity to heavy industrial pollution (Lloyd et al., 1985).
Firearms and psychiatry
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2021
In Sri Lanka, where an agricultural economy meant widespread access to dangerous pesticides, suicide rates were driven almost entirely by poisoning. When the most lethal pesticides were made less accessible in the 1990s, suicide rates dropped by half (Gunnell et al., 2007). In the UK, when household ovens switched over from lethal carbon monoxide producing coal gas to safer natural gas, total English suicide rates decreased by 33% (Kreitman, 1976). When barriers prevent access to a lethal method, we find minimal or no replacement of this method by other means (Berman et al., 2021). In the US, the most common lethal method of suicide is the firearm. Areas of the country with higher levels of gun ownership demonstrate 50% higher suicide rates, after appropriate adjustment (Miller et al., 2015). Individuals with access to a firearm have a three-fold risk of suicide compared to those without firearm access (Anglemyer et al., 2014). Unsurprisingly, laws regulating access to firearms by requiring permits, safe storage, and emergency removals, individually and in combination, have been found to reduce suicide and homicide rates (Anestis & Anestis, 2015; Kaufman et al., 2018; Swanson et al., 2021).
Biological monitoring of exposure to low concentrations of benzene in workers at a metallurgical coke production plant: new insights into S-phenylmercapturic acid and urinary benzene
Published in Biomarkers, 2018
Piero Lovreglio, Giuseppe De Palma, Anna Barbieri, Roberta Andreoli, Ignazio Drago, Luciano Greco, Elisabetta Gallo, Laura Diomede, Pietro Scaramuzzo, Maria Cristina Ricossa, Jacopo Fostinelli, Pietro Apostoli, Leonardo Soleo
The standpipes are a structural component present on the topside of the coke ovens. The raw gas produced by the coal distillation is carried by a closed cycle into the standpipes where the gas is cooled, producing raw coke gas and a liquid part, that run out into the by-products plant. In this plant, they are processed to produce purified coke gas, tar and ammonium sulphate. In the raw coke gas, among the other chemical compounds there is also benzene. For all the workers, it is compulsory to wear specific gloves and a half-face mask with an ABEK P3 filter, protecting both from gases and vapours of organic and inorganic compounds and from particulate matter, during their work activities in the various different coke oven and by-products areas.
Fuzzy risk assessment for mechanized underground coal mines in Turkey
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2020
Melih Iphar, Ali Kivanc Cukurluoz
The conclusions obtained in this work are in line with the shortcomings found in a previous occupational accident occurring in an underground coal mine in Soma, Turkey. A fire broke out in the local coal mine in Soma on May 13, 2014. One of the pits was engulfed with carbon monoxide. It was Turkey's worst ever industrial accident: 301 miners died, some burnt alive and others suffocating. According to the report signed by the commission of experts, some instances of gross negligence which led to the accident were identified as follows [49]: The gas masks given by the company were not periodically inspected according to the regulations. An institution also confirmed that 85% of the 301 victims were killed due to carbon monoxide poisoning.The ventilation system did not meet the requirements of a coal mine of that size. It should have been reorganized. There were huge differences between the ventilation systems inside the mine and the ventilation plans given to the experts’ committee.The 4-km-long system which supplies the mine with clean air was not sufficient. The ventilation method and system were not appropriate for a coal mine with risk of fire.The register books, in which the carbon monoxide gas, oxygen and coal gas measurements were recorded, were not filled in regularly. Measurements from earlier days were found to be copied randomly.Most of the gas sensors in the mine (48 gas and 19 carbon monoxide sensors) malfunctioned. The sensors had a calibration problem and could not read the data properly.