Hydrocarbon Poisoning

Hydrocarbon poisoning is sickness from swallowing or breathing in fumes from hydrocarbon products.

• Most small children who swallow these products and are poisoned will recover

• Teens and adults who breathe in fumes to get high (known as huffing, bagging, or sniffing) can die of cardiac arrest (when their heart stops beating) or have brain damage

• Swallowing hydrocarbons can lead to irritation and then infection of the lungs

• Severe poisoning affects your brain, heart, bone marrow, and kidneys

If you think you or someone else may have been poisoned, call for emergency medical assistance (911 in most areas of the United States) right away.

• Coughing

• Choking

• Fast breathing

• A burning feeling in the stomach

• Blue skin (due to low oxygen levels in the blood)

• Sleepiness

• Trouble breathing—it can take several hours for this to happen

• Poor coordination (clumsiness)

• Seizures (when your body moves or jerks out of your control)

• Coma (when you’re unconscious and can’t be woken up)

Doctors will suspect hydrocarbon poisoning based on your symptoms and a description of what happened. They may smell hydrocarbons or see marks from paint or oil on your body or clothes.

Doctors will:

• Do a chest x-ray to check for fluid in your lungs

• Measure the oxygen level in your blood

• Do an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) if they need to check for brain damage

Doctors will:

• Have you take off any clothes that touched the hydrocarbon

• Wash your skin well

• Give you oxygen or, if severe, a ventilator if you have breathing problems

• Care for you in the hospital until you recover

• Give you medicine to prevent infection