Potassium Cyanide Toxicity - Health Hazards, Diagnosis, and Prevention

Introduction

Potassium cyanide is capable of causing instant death. Cyanide is basically defined as any chemical that has the carbon nitrogen bond. Potassium cyanide is a very deadly form of cyanide that can cause death. Other equally dangerous forms of cyanide include sodium cyanide, hydrogen cyanide, and cyanogen chloride. These can be found in the form of solids, liquids, and gasses.

What Is Potassium Cyanide?

Potassium cyanide is found in white, granular, or crystalline solid form. Potassium cyanide is toxic because of the hydrogen cyanide gas it releases, which is basically a very toxic chemical asphyxiant. When someone gets exposed to it, the body's ability to utilize oxygen gets affected, leading to fatal consequences. Potassium cyanide affects particularly those organs that are extremely sensitive to low oxygen levels. The central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and pulmonary system specifically get affected by potassium cyanide the most. Potassium cyanide is something that is mainly used for commercial purposes like electroplating, fumigation, and also extracting gold and silver from metals.

How Does Potassium Cyanide Affect the Human Body?

Potassium cyanide generally has an effect when it is breathed in since it gets absorbed through the skin. On coming into contact with potassium cyanide, it might cause irritation and even burn the skin along with the eyes, leading to damage that can be permanent. Breathing in can lead to irritation of the nose, throat, and lungs, causing coughing and continuous sneezing. It can also cause nose bleeding and painful sores inside the nose. The thyroid gland also gets enlarged by potassium cyanide, leading to abnormal functioning of the thyroid gland.

What Are the Symptoms of Potassium Cyanide Poisoning?

On getting exposed to potassium cyanide, one may experience:

• Nausea.

• Confusion.

• Bad headaches.

• Seizures.

• Extreme difficulty in breathing.

• General weakness.

• Cardiac arrest.

• Phases of loss of consciousness.

• Pounding of the heart.

• Dizziness.

• Anxiety.

What Are the Health Hazards Caused by Potassium Cyanide?

• Acute Health Hazards :

  • Constant irritation and burning of the skin and eyes leading to damage to the eyes.

  • Irritation of the nose, throat and lungs.

  • Constant sneezing and coughing.

  • In cases of extremely high exposure, constant headache, confusion, dizziness and anxiety along with a pounding heart lead to death at times.

• Chronic Health Hazards: The chronic health hazards caused by potassium cyanide can last for months to years depending on the level of exposure.

  • Cancer hazards.

  • Hazards of the reproductive system.

• Some Other Long Term Effects of Potassium Cyanide: The other long term effects of potassium cyanide toxicity include nose bleeding, painful sores in the nose and sudden changes in the blood cell count which proves to be dangerous. Abnormal functioning of the thyroid gland is also another long term effect of potassium cyanide along with permanent damage to the nervous system.

How to Test for the Presence of Potassium Cyanide in the Body?

One has to go through a number of medical tests to test the level of potassium cyanide present in the blood. It has to be made sure that the urine thiocyanate levels are tested first. Also, in cases of overexposure, the blood cyanide levels and complete blood count have to be checked. One also has to evaluate the functioning of their thyroid gland and have their nervous system properly examined by some certified medical professionals. For a proper diagnosis, the medical professionals ask for a complete history of their past and present health records.

How to Prevent Oneself From Potassium Cyanide Toxicity?

• Clothing: It has to be kept in mind that proper clothing can be a huge shield of protection against potassium cyanide. It has to be made sure that potassium cyanide does not come in contact with the skin at any cost. To make this happen, one has to wear protective clothing and gloves that would protect the skin from coming in contact with potassium cyanide. There are many manufacturers who provide safety equipment and protective gloves and chlorine material. Contacting them would be the best idea. Also the protective suits, gloves, footwear and headgear should be properly cleaned everyday before using.

• Proper Protection to the Eyes: Eyes are one of the most delicate parts of the body which has to be protected from potassium cyanide at any cost. For providing proper protection to the eyes one has two wear side shields or goggles. The best idea would be to wear a face shield along with goggles while coming in contact with corrosive and highly irritating toxic substances like potassium cyanide. Contact lenses should never be worn while walking with toxic substances like this.

How Would Workers Protect Themselves From Potassium Cyanide Toxicity?

Engineering controls are undoubtedly the best method of reducing exposure to potassium cyanide unless a less toxic chemical gets substituted. Some ways of reducing exposure to potassium cyanide in the workplace are as follows:

• It has to be made sure that toxic substances like potassium cyanide gets transferred from drums to other storages or containers automatically.

• Workers need to change their clothes and wear something clean as soon as they get contaminated by potassium cyanide. This is done to prevent future health hazards.

• It is strictly recommended not to carry contaminated clothes back home because it would affect the other family members too.

• The clothes that get contaminated by potassium cyanide should be handled by people who are experts and have previously been informed and warned of the hazards the exposure to potassium cyanide might cause.

• In cases of skin exposure, emergency showering should be done for removing the chemical. The workers should wash the areas of their body that might have come in contact with potassium cyanide at the end of their shift.

• It is also recommended not to eat, smoke or drink anything where toxic substances like potassium cyanide is handled or stored since this would increase the chances of the chemical being swallowed.

• One should never dry sweep the floor where potassium cyanide is stored or processed, instead a vacuum or a wet method should be used for reducing the dust during cleaning up.

Conclusion

Potassium cyanide is an extremely toxic substance and should be handled very carefully because even smoking it can lead to serious diseases and lung cancer, along with other respiratory issues. If someone has been in contact with potassium cyanide for a long time and unconsciously smokes it also, stopping at any time would reduce their possibilities of developing other health issues.