World War II. Since there has been little clinical experience with these gases, it is believed worth while to record the following detailed information collected on 8 casualties from 1149 (code) vapor. This (1149) is probably the most effective nitrogen-mustard.The conditions of these casualties resulted during the developmental operation of a pilot plant at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. Two other casualties were hospitalized for cutaneous burns, and 10 additional patients with minor complaints were treated in the outpatient clinic. Meanwhile the safety problems in the operation of the pilot plant were solved, and no further casualties appeared at this particular time.
ANALYSIS OF CASESIt was impossible to estimate accurately the casualty rate, because of variation in production schedule and shift of employees. The casualty rate appeared high in the opinion of the workers in the pilot plant, all of whom had previous experience with mustard vapor, but this observation is probably not significant Three of the casualties (37 per cent) were military personnel, and the remaining 5 (62 per cent) were civilians. The average age was 31 years, the youngest being 22 years and the oldest 46 years. All employees were men. There was 1 Negro. Six casualties (75 per cent) complained of smelling a "fishy" odor on exposure, but 2 patients (25 per cent) were unable to detect any odor whatever. The mean interval between known exposure and onset of symptoms was six hours, the shortest interval being four hours and the longest ten hours. The average period of hospitalization was fifteen plus days. The commonest complaint was hoarseness.
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