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Cyanide and fire victims: A hazard in focus

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Abstract

The insidious accumulation of hydrogen cyanide from smouldering fires in dwellings to levels that render victims unconscious and facilitate intoxication by carbon monoxide by increasing the ventilation rate may occur more frequently at the present time through the mounting trend toward the use of cheap synthetic materials in building construction and house furnishings. Although in many cases fatalities appear to be due primarily to carbon monoxide, the proportion of deaths in which cyanide intoxication is a decisive contributory factor may have been underestimated. In the circumstances of an emergency the possibility of extensive exposure to cyanide cannot be excluded. Treatment of all fire victims overcome by toxic fumes with an innocuous cyanide antidote immediately upon removal from the affected premises therefore appears necessary.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong, Sassoon Road, Hong Kong

    G. Robert & N. Jones

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Robert, G., Jones, N. Cyanide and fire victims: A hazard in focus. Fire Technol 26, 141–148 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01040178

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