Chemistry accident of students triggers large-scale deployment

Students and professor hospitalized

20/07/2011

In Hamburg, the chemical accident of students at the Technical University (TU) Harburg residues has triggered a large-scale deployment. Several vessels of the highly toxic solvent acetonitrile are broken during an experiment. Contact with the solvent and inhalation of the vapors resulted in significant health problems for five students and one professor, requiring hospitalization, a spokesperson for the rescue services said.

The fire brigade moved with 50 officials on Tuesday evening on the grounds of the TU Harburg remnants to make the liberated, extremely toxic solvent harmless. Five hours earlier, several tubes of acetonitrile had fallen to the ground in an experiment and were broken, explained fire brigade spokesman Hendrik Frese „Hamburger Abendblatt“. During the wiping up of the exiting liquid, the students and the professor appeared to have come into direct contact with the highly toxic solvent, causing considerable health problems after some time. The „five students and the professor responsible for the experiment are in hospital for intensive care unit observation“, so the statement of the fire department spokesman.

Hospital deliveries due to released solvent
Around noon the students and the professor at the Technical University of Harburg experimented with residues of the dangerous solvent when several vessels fell to the ground and the acetonitrile was released. The escaping liquid was apparently wiped up relatively carelessly, the fire brigade spokesman said. As the students and their professor subsequently suffered massive health problems, they turned to the poison emergency center. For the fire department on Tuesday evening was followed by a major mission at the Technical University to eliminate the highly toxic acetonitrile. Equipped with chemical protective suits, the firefighters secured the contaminated rooms until two o'clock during the cleaning and ventilation. Meanwhile, the five students and the professor were hospitalized in the intensive care unit, reports fire department spokesman Hendrik Frese. Due to the threat of long-term effects in contact with the solvent acetonitrile patients should remain for a while to observe in the clinic, so the statement of the spokesman of the rescue teams.

Serious damage to health due to acetonitrile
The solvent acetonitrile has a corrosive effect and causes similar symptoms of poisoning as hydrogen cyanide. Acetonitrile can exert its toxic effect both on inhalation of the vapors, as well as the ingestion of the liquid and on skin contact. Above all, the risk of absorption via the skin (percutaneously) is relatively often underestimated, according to the experts. In the body, the solvent acts like a blood poison (hemotoxin). The hematopoietic system is influenced in such a way that the transport and metabolic function are impaired and can follow the damage of the blood circulation up to the circulatory collapse. Like hydrocyanic acid, the solvent acetonitrile blocks the oxygen binding site in the respiratory chain of the body's cells, which stops cell respiration and thus the use of oxygen to produce energy. A typical symptom in the literature, for example, the bright red discoloration of the skin is called because the venous blood still contains relatively high levels of oxygen due to the blocked oxygen utilization and thus appears bright red. Possible signs of poisoning by the solvent acetonitrile may also be headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Severe acetonitrile intoxications such as possibly the students and the professor also threaten respiratory arrest, unconsciousness and at worst a complete cardiac arrest. (Fp)

Picture credits: Dieter Schütz