Five office workers inadvertently exposed to cypermethrin

Abstract

Five cases of poisoning by cypermethrin, a pyrethroid pesticide, are presented. The chemical was inadvertently introduced to the air-conditioning ducts and the patients inhaled it. Exposed patients experienced shortness of breath, nausea, headaches, and irritability. The exposure was compounded by repeated entry into the contaminated area and slow referral to a physician experienced in pesticide exposures.

Histologic Peripheral Nerve Changes in Rats Induced by Deltamethrin

“…Symptoms commonly observed in workers spraying pyrethroids, especially -cyano pyrethroids, are cutaneous paresthesia and abnormal facial sensations (Moretto, 1991;Lessenger, 1992). Except for these cases of paresthesia no other manifestation of peripheral nerve involvement has been described in human beings.…”

Pesticide illness among flight attendants due to aircraft disinsection

“…Any of these constituents may have contributed to health effects, but the relative contribution of each component is not known. Some the health effects reported by the flight attendants may also be caused by anxiety and be observed with mass psychogenic illness [Lessenger, 1992;Jones et al, 2000;Henningsen et al, 2003]. However, because a pesticide formulation capable of causing the symptoms was present in all cases, anxiety and, mass psychogenic illness are unlikely explanations for the symptoms [House and Holness, 1997;Jones, 2000].…”

“…Worker illness may have been exacerbated because flight attendants were unable to remove themselves from exposure and seek medical care in a timely way. The primary intervention in the case of a toxic exposure is to remove the affected individual from the area of exposure as soon as possible [Lessenger, 1992]. Residual disinsection results in unavoidable flight attendant exposure to a pesticide in a confined space (i.e., a relatively small, enclosed area with no ready egress).…”

Anosmia after exposure to a pyrethrin-based insecticide: A case report

“…In reported cases of inhalational exposure in humans, respiratory irritation is the most common effect, but hypersensitivity pneumonitis have also been described [26]. The signs of respiratory irritation, such as shortness of breath, cough, and congestion, were reported among office workers, commencing upon entry into a building that had been 2 days previously treated for termites with a cypermethrin based insecticide [32]. A problem in our study is that the environmental concentration of pyrethrins (and of 2-butoxiethanol and 2-etil 6-propilpiperonil ether) in the subject's inhaled air is unknown, nor it is possible to reliably estimate it.…”