Atemwegstamponade durch Aspiration von Sojaschrot

Zusammenfassung

Berichtet wird über eine tödliche Aspiration von Sojaschrot durch einen Arbeiter, der ein Futtermittelsilo reinigte. Die oberen Atemwege waren von dem gequollenen Material wie plastisch ausgegossen. Als Unfallursache ist neben der Alkoholisierung an das Zusammenwirken von Alkohol und Hexan zu denken, das aus der extrahierten Ölsaat freigesetzt werden kann.

Summary

Among numerous reports of fatal asphyxia only a few cases of aspiration of swelling or clumping materials can be found. A casual labourer had to clean a silo for soya-meal which had a depth of 10 meters. To remove hardened meal he had been let down by a special lift. Some time later he was found lifeless on the bottom of the silo, his mouth lying on the soya meal. The respiratory tract was completely filled with meal that had swelled to form a cast of the trachea. The “native” meal from the silo had a water content of 15 %, whereas the material in the trachea had a water content of 53 % to 69 %. Soya-meal used as human food experimentally absorbed only 5 % water in a humid chamber and showed a 15 % increase of volume. A bloodalcohol level of 2.59 % together with the influence of hexane has to be considered as a cause of the accident: Soya-meal is an extracted oil seed. Handling large amounts of the meal 1.2 vol % of hexane in the air can be exceeded and produce an explosive mixture, but 0.5 vol % is sufficient to cause central effects. A combined effect of alcohol and hexane seems possible. The relative density of hexane is 2.79 as compared with air, so it will reach it’s highest concentration at the bottom of a container.