title: Radiopacity of household deodorizers, air fresheners, and moth repellents.
abstract: Household deodorizers and moth repellents are common agents implicated in many childhood poisonings. Their ingredients usually include either paradichlorobenzene or naphthalene compressed into a solid ball or another shape, sometimes with added essential oils and fragrances. Because medically naphthalene is a more important toxin than paradichlorobenzene, with hematologic and nervous system effects, clinicians often seek to discern which product has been ingested. We discovered fortuitously that a mothball swallowed by a retarded adult was radiopaque, and so designed an in vitro experiment to study the radiopacity of a variety of household deodorizers and products. Of 10 products screened for radiopacity by two radiologists, those containing paradichlorobenzene were consistently strongly radiopaque; those containing naphthalene were radiolucent. A third alternative ingredient which is used in some toilet bowl deodorizers, cetrimonium bromide, was also radiopaque. Radiopacity of paradichlorobenzene or cetrimonium bromide-containing products did not dissipate with time. We speculate that the halogen within the chemical structure of these compounds accounts for their radiopacity. We conclude that paradichlorobenzene-containing commercial products can be distinguished clinically from those containing naphthalene by the performance of an abdominal radiograph.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Woolf
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saperstein
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zawin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cappock
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Sue
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D002722:Chlorobenzenes / Q000506:poisoning; D003836:Deodorants / Q000506:poisoning; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006795:Household Products / Q000506:poisoning*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009281:Naphthalenes / Q000506:poisoning; D011041:Poisoning / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011859:Radiography; D013270:Stomach / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
chemical_list: D002722:Chlorobenzenes; D003836:Deodorants; D009281:Naphthalenes; C018511:4-dichlorobenzene