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Corrosives
Published in Bev-Lorraine True, Robert H. Dreisbach, Dreisbach’s HANDBOOK of POISONING, 2001
Bev-Lorraine True, Robert H. Dreisbach
Fluorine is used in organic synthesis. Hydrogen fluoride (hydrofluoric acid) is used in the petroleum and semiconductor industries and in etching glass. Cryolite (sodium aluminum fluoride) is used in aluminum reduction and many other industrial processes. Fluoride salts are used in the prevention of dental caries and in rodenticides. A 90 g tube of fluoride toothpaste contains 67 mg of fluoride. Methyl sulfonyl fluoride is used as a fumigant.
The Specific Human Health Impacts of Natural Disasters
Published in Emily Ying Yang Chan, Public Health Humanitarian Responses to Natural Disasters, 2017
Volcanic eruptions result in the highest mortality rates when compared with other types of natural disasters. This high level of mortality is due to the risks of pyroclastic flows, which can result in high levels of deaths, fatal injuries and severe burns. Pyroclastic flow is a mass of hot volcanic ash, lava fragments and gases that erupt from a volcano and move rapidly down its slope. It can travel more than 300 kilometres per hour and may reach temperature as high as 600 ° C to 900 ° C (Jay, 2006; Hogan & Bearden, 2007). The fragmentary material emitted from a pyroclastic flow is called tephra (Hansell et al., 2006). Ashes are tephra fragments that are less than 2 mm in size. Ashfall that follows an eruption, particularly wet ash, can damage buildings and contaminate water sources. Heavy ashfall can cloud the sky, leaving people living in complete darkness during the day. The free silica and high iron content of ash irritates the upper and lower respiratory airways, eyes and skin. High levels of airborne ash (daily average total suspended particles (TSP) of 3,000–33,000 μg/m3) can result in a two-to threefold increase in hospital admissions and a three-to fivefold increase in emergency room visits for respiratory-related illnesses (Baxter, Ing, Falk, & Plikaytis, 1983). Lapilli are tephra fragments between 2 and 64 mm in size, while lava bombs or blocks are those larger than 64 mm (Jay, 2006). The ejection of lava bombs can cause severe head injuries, burns and blunt trauma. Volcanic gases, such as sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen fluoride, also impose significant health hazards. Sulphur dioxide can be irritating to respiratory airways, eyes and skin. Hydrogen fluoride can also generate the same effect, but when it is ingested by animals, it will produce fluorosis and cause death. Breathing carbon dioxide with a concentration greater than 20% can also cause unconsciousness and asphyxiation in humans (Baxter, 1990).
The powder in the basement: how an unlabeled poison inspired federal legislative change
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2022
Keahi M. Horowitz, Robert G. Hendrickson, Adam Blumenberg
After absorption, however, the mechanism of toxicity for NaF is unclear, but is presumed to be similar to that of other rapidly-dissociating fluoride compounds (for example, hydrofluoric acid (HF)). Fluoride may directly or indirectly impair enzymatic activity, resulting in cellular apoptosis, acidemia, and significant disruption of cellular metabolism – similar to presentation of poisoning by other metabolic toxins [28]. Rat experiments, case reports, and postmortem studies of such fluoride exposures suggest that the common pathophysiology is profound hypocalcemia and hypomagnesemia with widespread cellular dysfunction [26]. Biochemical studies suggest that the formation of fluorapatite enhances calcium binding at a rate greater than the body’s compensatory homeostatic mechanisms resulting in profound hypocalcemia [26]. In some cases, serum calcium concentrations have been as low as 6.5 mg/dL in an adult and 3.4 mg/dL in a child [27,29]. Membrane destabilization due to the low calcium and magnesium concentrations may manifest as muscular excitability, including tetany, diaphragmatic irritability, and cardiac dysrhythmias [3,27,29]. Patients may even rapidly progress to life-threatening ventricular dysrhythmias and respiratory arrest [3,27,29].
Nose-only inhalations of high-dose alumina nanoparticles/hydrogen chloride gas mixtures induce strong pulmonary pro-inflammatory response: a pilot study
Published in Inhalation Toxicology, 2021
Alexandra Bourgois, Dominique Saurat, Suzanne De Araujo, Alexandre Boyard, Nathalie Guitard, Sylvie Renault, Francisca Fargeau, Christine Frederic, Emmanuel Peyret, Emmanuel Flahaut, Aurélie Servonnet, Anne-Laure Favier, Ghislaine Lacroix, Sabine François, Samir Dekali
Taken together, these toxicity data regarding Al2O3 particles and HClg raise questions toward their potential combined toxicity due to possible exposure to the workers. The study of mixtures effects is an actual major concern in toxicology. Only few scientific data are available in literature, especially for mixtures of compounds with different physical forms (solid and gas for example). However, population is daily exposed to multiple pollutants simultaneously and a recent study highlighted mixtures effects (synergy, addition, antagonism, or inhibition) unpredictability (Hayes et al. 2019). Therefore, it is currently necessary to study mixtures effects in a case-by-case basis. Biological effects and resulting hazard of complex combustion aerosols exposure are poorly described in literature. To date, only one study was published concerning the combined effect of Al2O3 particles and HClg. This study was carried out in vivo on rats and mice by whole body exposure (Wohlslagel et al. 1976). However, during exposures, HClg was always associated with hydrogen fluoride gas (HFg) and the only studied endpoint was mortality. Conclusions did not highlight any additive or synergistic effect of Al2O3 particles addition to the mixture of gases on animals’ mortality.
Applications of fluorine to the construction of bioisosteric elements for the purposes of novel drug discovery
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2021
Despite the potential attractiveness of this moiety, synthetic accessibility presented one of the main barriers to the installation of the BITE group. Typically, lengthy sequences relying on deoxyfluorination chemistry were required to achieve this though were plagued with issues arising from competing elimination processes. An alternative to this would be to develop a vicinal difluorination of olefins, and Hara and coworkers had provided an isolated report of a stoichiometric variant of this reaction in 1998 based using iodinetoluene difluoride and Et3N.5HF [194]. Inspired by this work and noting that hypervalent iodine (III) reagents in situ by treatment with Selectfluor, Gilmour et al. have developed a robust catalytic variant of this reaction using p-iodotoluene as an expensive organocatalyst and Selectfluor as the terminal oxidant. Key to the success of the reaction was the identification of a suitable HF source, and through optimization studies, an amine:HF (1:5) solution mixture comprised of Et3N.HF and Olah’s reagent to serve both as the fluoride source and Bronsted acid activator was identified as ideal to obtain high yields of the desired difluorides [195–199].