Indoor chlorine gas release in a natatorium: A case study.

Pool chemicals are utilized in pools to inactivate pathogens, optimize pH, and increase water clarity. This is conducted to ensure public health and safety by reducing bacteria concentrations and allowing distressed swimmers to be detected underwater. In commercial recreational facilities, muriatic acid and gaseous CO2 are typically used to maintain pH. Chlorine, which can take the form of liquid or solid tablets of sodium hypochlorite or granular calcium hypochlorite, is used to sanitize pool water, and is the most used chemical treatment in the world for swimming pools disinfection. If chlorine is mixed with muriatic acid, chlorine gas is formed, which can lead to severe injuries and fatalities (SIFs) to exposed individuals. This work illustrates an incident that occurred as a result of the simultaneous injection of muriatic acid and liquid sodium hypochlorite into a recreational natatorium chemical feed line. This led to the release of chlorine gas in the indoor environment, which resulted in injuries to five patrons. Furthermore, strategies are proposed to prevent this from occurring and to reduce the likelihood of similar incidents in the future. These include the implementation of fail-safe logic to prevent the controller from malfunctioning and ensuring that controller program settings do not permit simultaneous chemical injection.

Analyzing the national fire incident reporting system to identify carbon monoxide incidents in the U.S. lodging industry.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisonings in the U.S. lodging industry have become a regular occurrence, however there is no current mandatory national reporting, tracking, or surveillance mechanism for CO incidents in the U.S. lodging industry. As such, the problem is largely invisible. The objective of this study was to utilize the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) data to better understand the public health risk from Carbon Monoxide (CO) incidents in the U.S. lodging industry. The NFIRS datasets for years 1999 through 2018 were assessed to identify CO incidents occurring at U.S. hotels and motels. The results of the analysis identified 3405 incidents. Incidents were strongly correlated with increased fire department participation in NFIRS (R = 0.82). The number and frequency of CO incidents in the U.S. lodging industry are underreported. Previous efforts relying on news media identified only 10% of the incidents reported in the NFIRS data. This indicates a greater public health risk associated with CO exposure in the U.S. lodging industry than previously realized.

Corrigendum to "Analyzing the national fire incident reporting system to identify carbon monoxide incidents in the U.S. lodging industry" [Prev. Med. Rep. 24 (2021) 101531].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101531.].

Building-associated neurological damage modeled in human cells: a mechanism of neurotoxic effects by exposure to mycotoxins in the indoor environment.

Damage to human neurological system cells resulting from exposure to mycotoxins confirms a previously controversial public health threat for occupants of water-damaged buildings. Leading scientific organizations disagree about the ability of inhaled mycotoxins in the indoor environment to cause adverse human health effects. Damage to the neurological system can result from exposure to trichothecene mycotoxins in the indoor environment. This study demonstrates that neurological system cell damage can occur from satratoxin H exposure to neurological cells at exposure levels that can be found in water-damaged buildings contaminated with fungal growth. The constant activation of inflammatory and apoptotic pathways at low levels of exposure in human brain capillary endothelial cells, astrocytes, and neural progenitor cells may amplify devastation to neurological tissues and lead to neurological system cell damage from indirect events triggered by the presence of trichothecenes.