Poisoning in people's lives happens quite often. Their reasons are the most banal - they didn’t check the expiration date on the product packaging, they were tempted by smoked fish glossy with fat, they ate soup of dubious quality in the canteen, they didn’t pay attention to the unpleasant smell in the car.
Regardless of the cause, in case of poisoning, medical care should be provided according to certain rules. The first thing that people around or the victim himself (if he has the strength to do so) should do is to call an ambulance. What to do while the doctors go to the call? What kind of assistance is required in case of poisoning, if it is not possible to turn to doctors? Each of us should have an idea of what to do if substances hazardous to he alth have entered the body.
Poison gases
Don't think you can't get poisoned because you don't eat mushrooms, you always scrupulously study the expiration dates of goods, you don't have a stove in your house, and you never visit catering places. The world around us, being at the mercy of technological progress, has become much more inhospitable than it was some hundred years ago.
Inhabitants of megacitiesthey inhale tons of substances harmful to he alth every day, have a snack on the go, buying something at a fast food outlet, rejoice when they managed to get cheap products at a super promotion, without thinking that their expiration date has expired. But even those who protect their he alth are not immune from the mistakes and carelessness of others. So, in your city at an industrial enterprise, an accident or just a technological release may occur, in which tons of toxic gases will enter the atmosphere.
If there is an accident alert, people should stay at home if possible and cover even closed windows with a damp cloth, such as a sheet. If you need to move along the street, it is mandatory to wear a respirator or at least a mask. If there is nothing special at hand, you can cover your mouth and nose with clothing, such as a scarf folded several times.
Although such situations are extraordinary and happen very rarely, you need to know how to provide first aid in case of poisoning, because in a large-scale accident there can be many victims, doctors will not physically be able to keep up with all the victims.
Workers in hazardous industries can be poisoned by toxic gases even without the onset of a global catastrophe, for example, if chemical storage tanks are leaking or if the production process is disrupted. You can also get poisoned by poisonous gas in everyday life when performing actions with dangerous chemicals in a closed room, for example, in a garage.
What needs to be done
Signs of poisoning will depend on the type of gas. In some cases, chemical burns of the larynx and bronchi, spasms of the respiratory system, convulsions and coma may occur. Generalized symptoms can be:
- Cough.
- Headache.
- Sore throat.
- Teary.
- Sneezing, runny nose.
- Dizziness.
- Disorientation in space.
- Tinnitus.
- Increased excitability caused by fear.
- Disturbance of coordination of movements.
In case of gas poisoning, help should be provided as soon as possible, as the victim may develop pulmonary edema, leading to death.
If gases were inhaled by mouth, symptoms may include:
- The appearance of a metallic taste.
- Pain and burning in the throat, in the esophagus, in the stomach.
- Vomiting blood.
- Diarrhea.
- Anuria.
- Swelling of the larynx.
- Stop breathing.
When formalin poisoning, dermatitis of open areas of the body (hands, face), eczema, nail damage are observed.
First aid for gas poisoning is as follows:
- If possible, remove the victim from the danger zone. If this is not possible, you need to cover his face or only his mouth and nose with a breathable cloth moistened with water.
- Lay on a flat surface so that his legs are raised.
- Cover, warm.
- Give ammonia a sniff if the person is unconscious.
- Rinse eyes and skin on exposed areas of the body with soda solution (a teaspoon per liter of water).
- In case of burns on the skin, apply bandages with antiseptics.
- When gas enters the digestive tract, give a lot of water to drink.
Household gas poisoning
Don't think that natural gas, which we use to cook delicious meals, poisons only suicidal people.
According to medical statistics, such incidents happen quite often. The most trivial reasons:
- Milk escaped from the stove, the fire in the burner went out, but the gas still came from the gas pipe.
- Children left unattended turned the knobs on the stove (turned on the burners).
- Elderly people forgot to turn off the burner, blocking only the gas in the pipe. The next time they use the stove, they don't notice that the burner is on and the gas is flowing into the room.
To reduce cases of poisoning, a special flavoring agent with a characteristic odor is added to natural gas. Many react to it and rush to the kitchen to check if everything is in order.
If the room is filled with gas, you should immediately open all the windows in the house, creating a draft.
Symptoms of poisoning:
- Nausea.
- Teary.
- Headache.
- CNS depression.
- High heart rate.
- Loss of consciousness.
Providing assistance in case of gas poisoning comes down to the following actions:
- Remove the victim to fresh air (in the yard, onbalcony).
- Loosen his clothes to allow free breathing (unbutton the top and next buttons).
- Lay on its side. This must be done so that in the event of vomiting, a person does not choke.
- Try to find a pulse. If not, do chest compressions.
- If casu alty is not breathing, administer artificial respiration.
Causes of carbon monoxide poisoning, risk groups
Experts call this gas carbon monoxide (CO). It is lighter than air, has no smell, no taste, no color. That is, it is almost impossible to notice its release into the environment. Meanwhile, this gas is extremely toxic. According to hygienic standards, its MPC in a cubic meter of air is allowed only 0.0017% or 20 mg/m3.
In the exhaust gases of cars it should be from 1.5% to 3%. To find out, the relevant authorities carry out such a hated test for CO for many drivers. Its goal is to find out how much of a deadly substance a vehicle releases into the environment and what threat it poses to others, that is, to all of us. Help for carbon monoxide poisoning should be provided immediately, as this condition very often ends in death for the victim.
Risk groups:
- Car owners may be harmed if they perform any work with their car's engine running while in a closed garage.
- Carbon monoxide poisons people who stay for a long timenear busy highways, where CO concentration limit is exceeded several times.
- Inhabitants of private houses, owners of cottages using stove heating.
- In case of fire, especially in cases where smoldering objects are observed, which, as a rule, is paid less attention than open fire.
- In factories using CO in the process.
- People in poorly ventilated areas where gas stoves and other open burning equipment are used.
Many people will be surprised to learn that CO poisons, even when smoking a hookah, if there is not enough oxygen in the machine. The smoker may feel nausea, drowsiness, headache, dizziness. Help with carbon monoxide poisoning in this case is to provide a person with fresh air. The victim can be taken outside, give him a cup of coffee.
If the CO in the room is only 0.08%, people experience suffocation. At a concentration of 0.1%, a person dies within an hour. At a concentration of 0.32% - for 30 minutes, and if CO is 1.2% - it is enough to take a couple of breaths to die.
This danger of CO is due to the fact that in the body it forms very strong compounds with hemoglobin, blocking the flow of oxygen to cells and organs.
Help for carbon monoxide poisoning
Note that such a state can have several degrees.
Lung is characterized by the following symptoms:
- Minor nausea.
- Mild but persistent headache, throbbing in the temples.
- Impaired vision, pain in the eyes.
- Vomiting.
- Shortness of breath during moderate exercise.
- Dry cough.
- Disturbance of coordination of movements.
- Suffocation.
- Increase in blood pressure.
- Chest pain.
Even mild poisoning can be fatal for heart patients, hypertensive patients and the fetus in the womb.
The victim must immediately be taken to a place where there is fresh air, warm, give strong tea or coffee to drink.
With moderate severity, the following symptoms are added to the above symptoms:
- Tinnitus.
- Drowsy.
- Paralysis (while the person may be conscious).
- Hallucinations.
- "Flies" before the eyes.
- Convulsions.
- Stunned.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Tachycardia, arrhythmia.
- Skin hyperemia.
Before the arrival of the ambulance, the victim must be taken out into the fresh air, unfasten the buttons on his clothes, rub his chest, limbs, give a sniff of ammonia (if the person has lost consciousness).
Severe CO poisoning is characterized by:
- Threaded pulse.
- Convulsions.
- Coma.
- Lack of reaction to light with eyes open.
- Involuntary passage of urine and feces.
- Cyanosis of the skin and mucous membranes.
- Irregular or no breathing.
In this case, assistance with carbon monoxide poisoning should be carried out by physicians. The victim must be very quickly connected to an oxygen bag, enterintramuscularly drug "Acyzol".
At the scene of the accident, before the arrival of the ambulance, you need to try to ensure that the person breathes clean air. If necessary, perform resuscitation (artificial respiration and chest compressions).
Food poisoning
No one is immune from this. You can get poisoned by eating something stale. Some vendors and catering workers, in order to sell expired products, flavor them with a lot of spices. If you were offered just such a pie, barbecue or any other dish, think about whether it is worth eating. Both adults and children are often poisoned by expired dairy products. Kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese are especially guilty of this, that is, those products that can be sour even in good condition.
Another very dangerous product that often causes food poisoning is fish - herring, smoked, dried.
Unusual product color, unusual turbidity, sediment, consistency, suspicious smell and taste, bubbling during stirring should cause doubts.
What are the dangers of expired products? First of all, the fact that pathogenic microorganisms begin to multiply in them. It is the products of their vital activity that cause intoxication. Therefore, assistance with food poisoning should be provided taking into account the fact that a person has a bacterial infection.
Symptoms may vary depending on the type of microbe. Among them, the most common are pathogenic Escherichia coli, Proteus, Cereus bacilli, Enterococci,botulinum bacillus, staphylococci and others. Some of them can become deadly, so in no case should you eat questionable food and expired products, even if their appearance is quite acceptable. This is the only preventive measure against food poisoning.
But such a nuisance can also occur when eating fresh food, which contains chemicals that are dangerous to humans. Help with poisoning is required if a person has consumed:
- Inedible mushrooms.
- Agricultural products containing nitrates, pesticides.
- Edible mushrooms, herbs, berries collected along the roads that have absorbed dangerous chemicals.
- Gifts of nature collected near cemeteries, sedimentation tanks, chemical plants. Fish from polluted reservoirs is also dangerous. In this and the previous cases, poisoning occurs due to the accumulation of heavy metal s alts, cyclic hydrocarbons, nitrites, nitrosamines and other toxic substances in living organisms.
Few people know that there are species of fish in which certain parts of the body become poisonous in certain months. Some food products have the same property under certain conditions. These include:
- Milk with a barbel (barb).
- Puffers.
- In some months, caviar and milk of burbot, pike, as well as liver of mackerel and cod.
- Sprouted or green potatoes.
- Raw beans.
- Bitter kernels of apricots, plums, almonds.
- Moldy bread, buns (even if the bad partscut, and fry croutons from the missing bread).
First aid for food poisoning
Symptoms of food poisoning can vary depending on the food consumed. Common are:
- Sudden acute onset.
- Sharp abdominal pain.
- Diarrhea.
- Nausea (even the most innocuous smells and gentle movements, such as rolling over from back to side, sometimes trigger it).
- Vomiting (if little time has passed since the poisoning, food fragments will be present in the vomit).
- General malaise.
- Chills.
- Headache.
- Trembling in the limbs.
- High temperature (not always).
- Bloating.
- Cold sweat.
- Reducing blood pressure.
It is important to note that in case of poisoning with food containing botulinum bacilli, the first symptoms may appear only after a few days, when pathogenic microorganisms will make changes incompatible with life in the work of organs and systems.
At the same time, the patient, along with the above signs of intoxication, has problems with vision and hearing, drying out of the mucous membranes in the mouth, "mesh", fog before the eyes, muscle weakness (it is difficult to keep the head in the normal position), flatulence. Later, strabismus develops, ptosis in one or both eyes, anisocoria (different pupil diameter), atony.
If symptoms appear within a day, help for food poisoning is as followsactions:
- Gastric lavage. The victim is forced to drink a large amount of water (you can add potassium permanganate to make a pinkish solution), after which they cause vomiting. If a person refuses to drink voluntarily, such as a child, the liquid is forcibly poured into him. The procedure is repeated until the vomit consists only of drunk water.
- Reception of enterosorbents. Suitable "Smekta", "Enterosgel", the familiar activated carbon, "Polysorbent", "Karbofan" and analogues.
- Reception of hydrotonic drinks. Due to the large loss of fluid due to diarrhea and vomiting, it is necessary to take Regidron, Oralita, Hydrotonic, Marovita, Reosolat and other hydrotonics. You can prepare such a remedy yourself by diluting a teaspoon without a hill of s alt and a little less than a tablespoon of sugar in a liter of water.
- Warming the patient. After gastric lavage, a person should be covered with a warm blanket.
It is strictly forbidden to "treat" with alcohol tinctures, antibiotics, antidiarrheals.
Remember, only professional medical care in case of poisoning with products with botulinum sticks can save a person. In the hospital, the victim must cleanse the gastrointestinal tract from the remnants of toxins, conduct intestinal dialysis, introduce antitoxic serum, and carry out oxygenation in order to prevent hypoxia. In some cases, a series of resuscitation measures are carried out. It is not possible to provide such a course of treatment at home.
Mushrooms and berries
Every year dozens of people die in the world after eating poisonous mushrooms. The most dangerous of themis a pale grebe, which many inexperienced mushroom pickers mistake for champignon. This mushroom is so poisonous that a quarter of its cap on a pot is enough to die. Also poisonous are fly agaric, galerina, whitish talker, cobweb, entoloma, silverfish. They may have different names in different regions.
With improper processing, conditionally edible mushrooms become dangerous, and if the shelf life is violated, edible mushrooms become dangerous. Help with mushroom poisoning largely depends on how quickly the symptoms appear. However, in any case, you need to immediately call an ambulance. Poisoning is especially difficult for children, pregnant women, people weakened by diseases. For them, the outcome can be very sad.
Poisonous berries are poisoned mainly by children. The danger is wolf berries, taken for currants, lily of the valley, euonymus and some others. To prevent this from happening, you need to monitor your kids, and also explain to them what you can eat and what you can’t even try.
First Aid
Symptoms of poisoning may appear a couple of hours after a meal, or they may not make themselves felt for a day or more. A victim who has eaten a pale toadstool or a smelly fly agaric has:
- Unbearable abdominal pain.
- Salivation.
- Wearing.
- Painful nausea.
- Repeated diarrhea.
- Vomiting.
- Pupil constriction.
- Headache.
- Bradycardia.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Hallucinations.
- Convulsions.
- Excessive sweating.
- Decrease in body temperature.
The poison phylloidin is guilty of this, which cannot be neutralized by any culinary treatments. Once in the body, it immediately begins to destroy liver cells, but symptoms may appear only on the third day.
Emergency care for poisoning with this poison can be effective, oddly enough, before the onset of symptoms (for example, a person realized that he had eaten a bad mushroom, and immediately began to wash his stomach, quickly went to the hospital). In other cases, less than 30% of the victims can be saved.
The other mushrooms mentioned above contain the poison orellanin. Its insidiousness is that the first signs can appear many days after the meal (sometimes the incubation period lasts two weeks).
Symptoms:
- Intense thirst.
- Pain in the kidneys and in the peritoneum.
- Feeling cold limbs.
- Headache.
- Weakness, malaise.
There is no point in washing the stomach in this situation. The patient can only be helped by specific treatment in a hospital, aimed at neutralizing toxins and restoring the work of damaged organs. The death rate from orellanin poisoning is also very high.
Some mushrooms contain muscarine (fly agaric red, panther). When poisoned by them, the symptoms are:
- Strong emotional arousal, followed by drowsiness, lethargy.
- Hallucinations.
- Bradycardia.
- Delirium.
- Signs of intoxication (diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain).
- Increased salivation and lacrimation.
- Hysteria.
- Anuria.
First aid for poisoning with poisonous mushrooms is an urgent gastric lavage with induction of vomiting, but these actions are not effective in all cases. The patient can be given enterosorbents to drink, wrap him up and wait for the doctors in this position. In the hospital, the victim should be provided with professional assistance, consisting in the neutralization of toxins. They also perform treatment according to indications.
At home, before the doctors arrive, you can give a person a decoction of clover, horsetail and oak bark to drink (5:5:2). A mixture is made from dry ingredients, 3 soup spoons are taken, poured with boiling water, allowed to stand for at least 10 minutes, cooled quickly so that the infusion becomes warm, and half a glass is allowed to drink. This folk remedy can also neutralize some poisons.
Conclusion
Food, gas or chemical poisoning happens to hundreds of people every day. To protect yourself from such incidents, first of all, you need to carefully approach your diet, do not use expired products, even if they look great, do not pick mushrooms and berries in places not intended for this. Motorists are required to equip their cars with devices that clean exhaust gases from CO, parents should not leave small children unattended.
If, nevertheless, trouble happened, you need to quickly call an ambulance without losing your composure, but for nowshe is driving, follow the steps recommended in our article.
