How unclogging a sink can be lethal: case report of an accidental methyl bromide poisoning leading to a multiple organ failure.

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Author(s)

Lecailtel, S

Broucqsault-Dedrie, C

Vanbaelinghem, C

Nyunga, M

Colling, D

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Type

Journal Article

Abstract

Methyl bromide (CH3Br) is a colorless and odorless volatile gas, used as an insecticide, fire extinguisher, fumigant, and refrigerant. Although forbidden since 1987 for domestic use, it is still used in industry, for example, to fumigate agricultural fields which are for importation in the United States. Here is the case of a 74-year-old man who was accidentally exposed to methyl bromide after using an old fire extinguisher. Even though he finally survived, he developed a severe multiple organ failure and spent 2 months in intensive care unit. We present in this report all the difficulties we had to diagnose this unusual poisoning.

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Date Issued

2015-03-12

Date Acceptance

2015-02-20

Citation

Journal of Intensive Care, 2015, 3

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/37411

DOI

https://www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40560-015-0079-2

ISSN

2052-0492

Publisher

BioMed Central

Journal / Book Title

Journal of Intensive Care

Volume

3

Copyright Statement

© 2015 Lecailtel et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.

License URL

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Identifier

PII: 79

Subjects

Intensive care

Methyl bromide

Multiple organ failure

Poisoning

Publication Status

Published

Article Number

12