Paly Toxin exposure through Vapor

And all he did was wash them under hot water. For the lazy:

Palythoa toxin from Palythoa and Zoanthus polyps is widely known to be one of the most poisonous substances in the natural world, gram for gram. Armed with this knowledge a well-informed aquarist suited up for Palythoa removal duty from one of his aquarium rocks with gloves to protect his hands, safety glasses to protect his eyes but he made one crucial mistake that almost cost him his life.



In a near fatal mis-judgement, this aquarist went to scraping and brushing the Palythoa in a utility sink using hot water, thereby steaming the Palytoxin from the undesirable zoanthids and vaporizing the noxious chemical straight into his unprotected lungs. Half an hour of breathing in aerosolized palytoxin and home-reefer wasn’t feeling so hot, an hour later he was headed to the emergency room where he began coughing blood and was nearly paralyzed.


Despite having the foresight to print out information about zoanthid and palytoxin to take with him to the hospital, the doctors there were nearly helpless to rescue him. We’re not sure what worked but in the end the would-be Palythoa remover nearly lost his life by protecting only 2/3 of himself from the dangers of palytoxin, although we do know not if he has yet been released from the hospital.


The moral of the story is to not inhale the palytoxin steam that is cre
ated when you steam Palythoas with hot water, or to not vaporize them in the first place. The palytoxin from our aquarium zoanthids should never be underestimated, no wonder it was first isolated from zoanthids that Hawaiians called the “Seaweed of Death from Hana”.

Read more: Steamed Palythoas send well-informed aquarist to the emergency room, nearly to the grave
 
Thanks for the sticky Yote. I think this type of information should be available and easily found. Now it wont get lost for sure.
 
I think he was attempting to clean them off of a piece of live rock and rather then physically removing them, he thought pouring boiling water on them was a better idea and would be a quicker solution. Bad idea on his part.
 
The guy is in our local club and I talked to him. He poured boiling water on the palys while standing over his kitchen sink and inhaled the vapors. He wanted to kill the corals off the rock. Yes, he was in the hospital for days on a ventilator. He has chronic bronchitis.
 
This happened to someone on RC a few months back.
They decided to literally "cook" their rock on the stove. FYI... this is NOT what it means to "cook" rock!!!!!!

Both him and his wife ended up in the hospital. Luckily everyone ended up ok.
 
Update: The guy (in my local club) who was exposed to zoa vapor is getting out of the hobby as his health has begun to deteriorate even more. He had to sell off his 260 reef system. WEAR GLOVES. AVOID ANY CONTACT!
 
Update: The guy (in my local club) who was exposed to zoa vapor is getting out of the hobby as his health has begun to deteriorate even more. He had to sell off his 260 reef system. WEAR GLOVES. AVOID ANY CONTACT!
Thanks for the warning! Is really sad what happened to him. Hope he gets better.
 
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