Pupils gassed in school science experiment

Press, 3 October 1983, Page 8

Pupils gassed in school science experiment

Two Dunedin school pupils “skylarking” during a science experiment had to be taken to Dunedin Hospital’s intensive-care unit with acute chlorine gas poisoning.

The incident, reported in

the latest “New Zealand Medical Journal,” happened during a science class in a Dunedin high school. The class had been doing an experiment to produce chlorine gas. When the gas jar was passed round for the pupils to smell, a girl, aged 14, and a boy, aged 14, inhaled too much.

Both pupils began to have trouble breathing and were taken straight to hospital. The two were treated with drugs. The boy’s condition improved rapidly over 24 hours but his irregular heartbeat continued for some time. The girl was treated with drugs for three days. A few months after the incident the same thing happened during the same experiment in another school.

Dunedin Hospital’s scientific officer, Dr Wayne Temple, said the experiment was fairly common in schools and he warned teachers about the dangers. He said the experiment should be done by putting the gas jar in a fume cupboard. In this way pupils could smell the gas by opening then closing the cupboard door quickly. If the gas jar was passed round the lid should be kept on. There were enough fumes round the jar to smell.

“The children may have taken the cover off the top and taken quite a deep breath,” he said.

“The teacher was very upset about the whole thing. He said he had warned them before he passed the jar round.