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Q&As since 1989


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Zinc cyanide poisoning

I have been seeing a naturopathic doctor for a year and half. I have never been healthy in my life. Recently I started a new job in a building that is 120 years old and I work in the jail. There have been renovations going on and things being torn out and all. I went to see my doctor a week and half after I started work and did not feel quite right. He detected high levels of zinc cyanide in me. I am following his treatment but am wondering how I would go about testing the work place area for this. Is it an air quality test or does it have to come in chemical powder form? I would appreciate any info.

Margaret M Pennings

2006

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2006

Anything is possible, Margaret. The jail may have at one time been a plating shop or a cyanide production factory or storage warehouse. Or cyanide may have been used as rat poison or for general vermin control, or for a one-time fumigation. Electronic monitors are available that continuously sample the air for cyanide.

But I would be suspicious when a blood test indicates "Zinc Cyanide" because the zinc and the cyanide are two rather separate halves of the chemical compound, and a blood test may indicate cyanide or zinc or both, but I don't think a blood test would show that the source of the cyanide was zinc cyanide. Don't overdo the almonds, apricots, apple cores, or lima beans before your next blood test.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey