Amarillo TX Incident – Buzz Blog

Aluminum Phosphide Response 

I am sure we have all heard of the tragedy in Amarillo, TX by now.

Four members of a family were killed by what is reported to be Phosphine gas. The gas was reported to be generated by Aluminum Phosphide tablets in use at the home. Aluminum Phosphide or even Magnesium Phosphide are the active ingredients in fumigants and are restricted use pesticides as well. You can view some of these products and their SDS’s at this website.

PH3 has an IDLH of 50 ppm and has a fish or garlic like odor. PH3 is not new to hazmat responders. Responders have seen PH3 in Red P meth labs and even in possible chemical suicides using Aluminum Phosphide.  Discussion of this incident dominated the Hazmat Nation Roundtable on Tuesday of last week. The participants in the Roundtable put forth good discussion and offered much for all the listeners to learn from. These types of informal discussions probably occurred in many different forms.

One of the email discussions I was a part of offered some invaluable advice on handling phosphides. Bob Swann from MD Dept. of Environment Emergency Response offered the following:

1. Deadly Poison!!!(short and to the point)

2. Olfactory Fatigue in minutes(if your smelling dead fish, your already overexposed) (more on scents)

3. 10.6 ev PID has trouble seeing PH3 even though IP is 9.96 (Todd Burton of San Diego Fire also mentioned this on the roundtable, the PH3 coats the lamp and causes lower than actual readings)

A note from Todd Burton: This came out of a Rae 4000. It was used in the SD chem suicide study for H2S. The Calcium Polysulfide is so viscus that it covered the PID lamps and we noticed decreased readings as the study went along. Swapped it out and the new one read fine. As for Phosphine coating the lamp I have not seen it happen as normally the levels are soooo low ppb there is no problem. We have only had a couple of phosphine releases at universities. Down here we do carry a phosphine sensor on our Multi-Rae Pro as it is a byproduct of Red P Meth production. But those labs have fallen off to almost zero.

4. Confinement leading to unintentionally high concentrations leads to the formation of pyrophoric di-phosphides that immediately burst into flame on exposure. This includes piles of product partially reacted and crusted over. The next passage is cut and pasted from a fumigant SDS from the Degesch product page(link listed above) Phosphine (hydrogen phosphide, PH3)-air mixtures at concentrations above the LEL of 1.8% v/v (18,000 ppm) may ignite spontaneously.

Ignition of high concentrations of phosphine gas (hydrogen phosphide, PH3) can product a very energetic reaction. Explosions can occur under these conditions and may cause severe personal injury. Never allow the buildup of phosphine gas (hydrogen phosphide, PH3) to exceed explosive concentrations. Open containers of metal phosphides in open air only and never in a flammable atmosphere. Do not confine spent or partially spent dust from metal phosphide fumigants as the slow release of phosphine gas (hydrogen phosphide, PH3) from these materials may result in the formation of an explosive atmosphere. Spontaneous ignition may occur if large quantities of aluminum phosphide are piled in contact with liquid water.

5. I also pulled the NFPA 704

diamond off the SDS as well.

Bob Salvesen of FDNY Hazmat

1 and one of the Hazmat Guys podcast mentioned this on the roundtable Tuesday night. You

can see just from the diamond that this is pretty nasty stuff. The W strikethrough should be a warning sign to FD and Hazmat teams alike. You can see the handling measures that are recommended due to the danger of these products.

I would suggest you find out if these type products are handled in your response district. The best time to learn about this products is before the emergency arises!!! I want to send my thanks to Bob Swann, MDE for allowing me to share his expertise and perspective on this rare but deadly situation.

I want to end my first entry by thanking Phil Ambrose, Jason Rogers, and members of the HazmatNation for allowing me this opportunity to share information with them. It is this type of sharing that makes the fire service the greatest profession in the world!!!

Please leave your comments, suggestions and possible future topics below. Until next time,

Stay Safe Everyone