[Health risks of residual fumigants in international transport containers]

The increasing transport of goods worldwide is mainly carried in standard containers. These containers are frequently fumigated in order to protect freight from pests and to follow regulations of importing countries. Fumigants as well as toxic industrial chemicals can adsorb to goods and be emitted from them over various periods of time. This review is based on a literature search, analyses of air samples from a randomized selection of import containers at the port of Hamburg and clinical investigations of intoxicated subject. These data indicate that about 70% of imported containers exceed national or international threshold levels, about one sixth exceeding occupational exposure limits of fumigants and/or toxic industrial chemical, 0.5% had concentrations immediately dangerous to life or health. Intoxications by inhalation mainly occur in workers in the logistics area. No information exists on possible fumigation in small and medium-sized companies where the container units are unloaded. Neurological and respiratory ailments dominated in patients from our outpatient clinic and those reported in the literature: symptoms were often misdiagnosed. Our results confirm findings of other investigators that subjects who unload containers or have otherwise intensive contact with imported goods are frequently exposed to toxic or very toxic volatile chemicals. It can be assumed that there are many unrecognized cases and also health risks to the ultimate consumers of transported goods. History taking targeted on potential exposure is of great diagnostic importance in elucidating typical temporal relationship between exposure by inhalation and symptoms such as headache, skin irritation, cough, dyspnea, diarrhoea and neurological deficits. Detailed investigations by medical specialists is necessary to confirm suspected diagnoses. This should be combined with immediate special analyses of air samples and laboratory tests (biological monitoring).