Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Case Report

Acute health effects of accidental chlorine gas exposure: Joo-An Kim, Seong-Yong Yoon, Seong-Yong Cho, Jin-Hyun Yu, Hwa-Sung Kim, Gune-Il Lim, Jin-Seok Kim; Ann Occup Environ Med 2014;26:29-29. Published online October 1, 2014; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40557-014-0029-9

Objectives

This study was conducted to report the course of an accidental release of chlorine gas that occurred in a factory in Gumi-si, South Korea, on March 5, 2013. We describe the analysis results of 2 patients hospitalized because of chlorine-induced acute health problems, as well as the clinical features of 209 non-hospitalized patients.

Methods

We analyzed the medical records of the 2 hospitalized patients admitted to the hospital, as well as the medical records and self-report questionnaires of 209 non-hospitalized patients completed during outpatient treatment.

Results

Immediately after the exposure, the 2 hospitalized patients developed acute asthma-like symptoms such as cough and dyspnea, and showed restrictive and combined pattern ventilatory defects on the pulmonary function test. The case 1 showed asthma-like symptoms over six months and diurnal variability in peak expiratory flow rate was 56.7%. In case 2, his FEV1 after treatment (93%) increased by 25% compared to initial FEV1 (68%). Both cases were diagnosed as chlorine-induced reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) on the basis of these clinical features. The most frequent chief complaints of the 209 non-hospitalized patients were headache (22.7%), followed by eye irritation (18.2%), nausea (11.2%), and sore throat (10.8%), with asymptomatic patients accounting for 36.5%. The multiple-response analysis of individual symptom revealed headache (42.4%) to be the most frequent symptom, followed by eye irritation (30.5%), sore throat (30.0%), cough (29.6%), nausea (27.6%), and dizziness (27.3%).

Conclusions

The 2 patients hospitalized after exposure to chlorine gas at the leakage site showed a clinical course corresponding to RADS. All of the 209 non-hospitalized patients only complained of symptoms of the upper airways and mucous membrane irritation.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

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Case Report

Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome (RADS) Due to Chlorine Gas Exposure: Kyung Jong Lee, Yi Hyeong Lee, Jae Bum Park, Kwang Ho Kim, Ho Keun Chung; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1997;9(1):12-16. Published online February 28, 1997; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.1997.9.1.12

Abstract PDF: Reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) is a syndrome as a persistent bronchial hyperreactivity with asthmatic dyspnea which occurs after one or more inhalation exposures to a high concentration of irritant gasses, smokes or vapors in subjects who had preciously had no respiratory disease. We report a case of a 34 years old female worker suffering from reactive airways dysfunction syndrome who had been taking charge of guest room cleaning at a condominium. 7 months before, she inhaled high concentration of chlorine gas in confined and poor ventilated working space of bathroom at the condominium. As she was washing a bathroom with a bleaching agent (6 % sodium hypochlorite) without dilution, dyspnea, dizziness, headache, nausea, and coughing developed after work. She still suffer from dyspnea and coughing. All functional tests were normal except for methacholine challenge test which reveals bronchial hyperreactivity. She has some symptoms of dyspnea and coughing when exposed to perfume, cold air, and heavy work.

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