Chemical Pneumonitis from Inhalation of Zinc Chloride

A fatal case following exposure to zinc chloride and hexachloroethane from a smoke bomb in a fire simulation at a school

“…In 1945 Evans described for the first time the deaths of 10 people out of 70 in the Corradino tunnel (Malta) who were exposed to ZnCl aerosol during World War II (1). Other investigators have also reported cases of deaths caused by accidental inhalation of ZnCl (6,(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

“…Due to the corrosivity of the combustion products this type of smoke bomb is potentially harmful upon inhalation by unprotected people and if encountered in confined spaces can be lethal. Case reports of non-fatal lung damage produced by this type of smoke bombs have been reported by several authors (5) with fatal cases being rarely reported (6,7).…”

Health hazard evaluation report: HETA-86-326-1792, Airport Disaster Drill, Clermont Mercy Hospital, Batavia, Ohio.

“…This is surprising considering that these devices have sold for about 30 years and there are a number of articles describing a variety of health effects for smoke training participants. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] When previous investigations included environmental sampling, the same types of chemicals were identified. 9 The literature includes one article describing adverse health effects for airport disaster drill participants.…”

“…The trustee was aware that this type of device -a zinc chloride producing, smoke generating device -had been implicated in several episodes of sickness and death, resulting from smoke training exercises. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] One report described health problems of participants of an airport disaster drill. 3 These devices are also being evaluated by NIOSH in other health hazard evaluations, in which, hazardous levels of HCl and other chemicals have been measured.…”

Toxicological Profile for Zinc

“…These effects include dyspnea, cough, pleuritic chest pain, bilateral diffuse infiltrations, pneumothorax, and acute pneumonitis from respiratory tract irritation (Johnson and Stonehill 1961;Matarese and Matthews 1966;Schenker et al 1981;Zerahn et al 1999). In the study by Johnson and Stonehill (1961), cough, dyspnea, burning throat, diffuse infiltrates throughout the lung, (Evans 1945;Hjortso et al 1988;Homma et al 1992;Milliken et al 1963). …”