Two Cases of Methyl Bromide Poisoning in Termite Exterminators

It was decided at the 4th meeting of the signatories to the “Montreal Protocol Regarding Restriction of Substances Destroying the Ozone Layer” in 1992 to freeze beginning in 1995 the production and consumption of methyl bromide (CH 3 Br), which is mainly used as a plant quarantine fumigant and a soil fumigant, and to totally abolish it by 2005. Methyl bromide has, however, continued to be used quite frequently, mainly due to a delay in the development of substitutes for it. In the past, methyl bromide poisoning frequently occurred during the production of methyl bromide, harbor loading and unloading processes , and grain import processes. In recent years, acute poisoning in these areas has decreased as a result of streamlining and meticulous supervision of these processes, and improvement in the environment. Nevertheless, methyl bromide poisoning still occasionally occurs in farmers engaged in soil fumigation and workers engaged in extermination of termites, in part because the chemical is not handled under adequate supervision. This is a case report of methyl bromide poisoning in Japanese workers engaged in extermination of termites. Although the poisoning was a result of occupational exposure, a definitive diagnosis was delayed in these cases.