Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 28
Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism:
TICs & TIMs
MMWR 2003;52:199 -201
Module Two - The Clinical Neurotoxicology of Chemical Terrorism
28
A report from NYC published in the CDC’s rapid turnaround journal (MMWR) discussed
a case of a young girl in a Chinese immigrant family, who, in May 2002, developed
status epilepticus unresponsive to conventional therapy after ingesting a powder from an
apparent rodenticide packet marked with characters and purchased locally in Chinatown.
At that time, despite intensive investigation, the nature of the powder could not be
determined.
A rodenticide is a chemical that is used to kill rodents such as rats and mice. These
chemicals tend to be highly toxic. This slide depicts the rodenticide package in this case.
The pictographs are easy to interpret as a rat or mouse poison, but the Chinese
characters are not readily interpretable. Illegally imported foreign products can result in
domestic exposures to unusual toxic chemicals, and health-care providers might not be
able to provide appropriate therapy because the chemical ingredients might not be listed
or recognized even after translation of the product label.
December 2008 Version 2.0 Page 96