Homemade Lava Lamp Sickens Two in College Dorm
The yellow-orange color of the liquid was presumed by the college students to be a legitimate libation. The bottle had been left in an acquaintance's room.
Further investigation revealed that the colorful contents were a chemical concoction --primarily anti-freeze -- that glows in the dark in the presence of a black light, according to lead author Dr. William H. Richardson of the University of California in San Diego.
Such recipes are commonly found on the Internet for making a homemade "lava" lamp, a cylindrical light popular in the 1970s that contains colorful blobs of goo that slowly move and change shape.
Automobile antifreeze consists almost entirely of ethylene glycol, a chemical that is harmless on its own, but if ingested is changed by the liver into dangerous substances that can cause kidney failure and death.
One of the students was brought to the emergency room the next morning by friends concerned about his decreased consciousness and frequent vomiting. The second student, who came separately, was more lucid and complained of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. She was able to describe the beverage they had consumed and said she had only two glasses while her friend drank more.
Both of the 18-year-old patients were treated and later released without further complications. However, the male patient required blood dialysis during his hospital stay, according to the letter published in the June issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 4,884 ethylene glycol exposures in 2000 with 1,629 of these having received treatment in a health care facility, according to the report.
"Early recognition and timely intervention is critical to prevent the morbidity and mortality associated with ethylene glycol poisoning," the authors conclude.