I got a blood sample from a child and the doctor told me that he could not understand the perplexing symptoms and requested me to find out some clue from the blood. We conducted all the analytical studies in blood and urine qualitatively and quantitatively in the lab of clinical Toxicology and found that the amount of one poisonous chemical was increased ten fold compared to the reference values of an adult.
I talked to the mother about the possibility of exposure to this poisonous chemical. There was no chance for exposure and the parents were very much worried. Finally I asked the mother to send her child to the Kindergarten Monday to Friday, go to the doctor, take blood sample from the child and go for holidays with the child for a week to a North Sea Island where even cars are banned and there were no chances of any exposition.. Returning back she had to go to a doctor and take blood sample from her child once again. She did exactly what we told. In Friday’s sample the child had this poisonous chemical, about ten times higher than the reference value of adults. When they returned from the island, the poison level was in the lower part of the reference value. We made a guess and we gathered the details about the Kindergarten. In the kindergarten there are wooden benches and wooden play equipments of children, such as, ship, slide, swing and seesaw. All are very clean and in very good condition. We gave the blood values to the doctor and he forwarded to the government departments, nobody wants to believe. Somebody from the Government rang my boss and asked him whether I am a reliable chemist and his answer was, “leave this as my problem and as long our toxicologist is doing good to the public we inform all the people concerned about this”. Such a trusting boss must everybody have to do good to the patients.
Finally the concerned authorities decided to send the blood to a high security toxicological lab belonging to the Central Government. After two days my values were confirmed and the two Kindergartens were closed. We checked further the city’s other Kindergartens and everywhere the problem was the same. All these wooden things were removed and the contamination was also controlled.
The important chemical was at that time used as a wood preservative, the notorious pentachlorophenol. This was also by product from orange T and the chemical waste from the company contained high amount of pentachlorophenol. Instead of disposing it properly it was mixed with the paints which have been used for the benches and other wooden articles in the kindergarten. This sort of poisonous tourism was a cheap disposal of the deadly wastes in poor countries at the cost of the population there.
During the second half of the 1980s, this chemical was found in all the human beings in the world including Eskimos and persons living in the Amazon regions of South America.
Fortunately the half-life period of pentachlorophenol is 30 hours and it could be excreted from the body without much problem.
Long-time exposition could be detected in hair and nail.
Pentachlorophenol was banned in Germany in the 1990s.
I talked to the mother about the possibility of exposure to this poisonous chemical. There was no chance for exposure and the parents were very much worried. Finally I asked the mother to send her child to the Kindergarten Monday to Friday, go to the doctor, take blood sample from the child and go for holidays with the child for a week to a North Sea Island where even cars are banned and there were no chances of any exposition.. Returning back she had to go to a doctor and take blood sample from her child once again. She did exactly what we told. In Friday’s sample the child had this poisonous chemical, about ten times higher than the reference value of adults. When they returned from the island, the poison level was in the lower part of the reference value. We made a guess and we gathered the details about the Kindergarten. In the kindergarten there are wooden benches and wooden play equipments of children, such as, ship, slide, swing and seesaw. All are very clean and in very good condition. We gave the blood values to the doctor and he forwarded to the government departments, nobody wants to believe. Somebody from the Government rang my boss and asked him whether I am a reliable chemist and his answer was, “leave this as my problem and as long our toxicologist is doing good to the public we inform all the people concerned about this”. Such a trusting boss must everybody have to do good to the patients.
Finally the concerned authorities decided to send the blood to a high security toxicological lab belonging to the Central Government. After two days my values were confirmed and the two Kindergartens were closed. We checked further the city’s other Kindergartens and everywhere the problem was the same. All these wooden things were removed and the contamination was also controlled.
The important chemical was at that time used as a wood preservative, the notorious pentachlorophenol. This was also by product from orange T and the chemical waste from the company contained high amount of pentachlorophenol. Instead of disposing it properly it was mixed with the paints which have been used for the benches and other wooden articles in the kindergarten. This sort of poisonous tourism was a cheap disposal of the deadly wastes in poor countries at the cost of the population there.
During the second half of the 1980s, this chemical was found in all the human beings in the world including Eskimos and persons living in the Amazon regions of South America.
Fortunately the half-life period of pentachlorophenol is 30 hours and it could be excreted from the body without much problem.
Long-time exposition could be detected in hair and nail.
Pentachlorophenol was banned in Germany in the 1990s.
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