Handle with Care

A new danger was added last week to the hazards of everyday living. Carbon tetrachloride, an important ingredient in most non-inflammable cleaning fluids and many hand fire extinguishers, was described by three General Electric Co. doctors as a dangerous poison which can kill or cause serious illness.

In two U.S. communities last year (Richland and North Richland, Wash.), said the doctors in the Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine, there were two deaths, one near-fatality and four cases of hospitalization caused by carbon tetrachloride poisoning. Investigation showed that one teaspoonful of the fluid* taken by mouth, or the fumes from one cupful breathed in a poorly ventilated room, could cause death. It is especially dangerous to people who have been drinking. The doctors' recommendation: manufacturers of cleaning fluids containing carbon tetrachloride should label it poisonous, attach the usual skull & crossbones and explain the conditions under which it is most dangerous.

* Carbon tetrachloride is often prescribed by doctors in appreciably less than teaspoon doses as a vermifuge (worm chaser).

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