Can you smell the "bitter almonds"???

As long as there are legitimate uses of chemicals in our society, there is a high potential for first responders to encounter situations where chemicals will provide a life threat to the public and themselves.  A recent situation in my neighboring town forced paramedics to withdraw from a residence following the detection and identification of potassium cyanide, a highly lethal substance that an individual used to commit suicide with. 

Potassium cyanide is a solid compound that when moistened emits hydrogen cyanide due to hydrolysis - which smells like bitter almonds. Unfortunately, the ability to detect the “bitter almond” smell is limited to people with a certain genetic trait.  Thank goodness, from the reports I received, one of the lead medics on the scene detected an obnoxious smell which lead to the rapid evacuation from the residence and subsequent decontamination of the crew.

Cyanide is a potent inhibitor of cellular respiration, which prevents the body from oxidizing food to produce useful energy. This is what presents initially in acute cyanide poisoning as the classic red complexion in the victim because the tissues are not able to use the oxygen in the blood. The person loses consciousness, and death by hypoxia of neural tissue follows quickly.

Let’s hope that if you do not possess this genetic trait of being able to detect that smell of“bitter almond”, one of your partners does ….

How about that!