Lima Memorial Health System Logo
Approximate ER WAIT TIME WAIT TIME MACRO
Lima Memorial eHealth
Careers
Ways to Give

Health Library

Refrigerant poisoning
     
Print-Friendly
Bookmarks

Refrigerant poisoning

Coolant poisoning; Freon poisoning; Fluorinated hydrocarbon poisoning; Sudden sniffing death syndrome

 

A refrigerant is a chemical that makes things cold. This article discusses poisoning from sniffing or swallowing such chemicals.

The most common poisoning occurs when people intentionally sniff a type of refrigerant called Freon.

This article is for information only. DO NOT use it to treat or manage an actual poison exposure. If you or someone you are with has an exposure, call the local emergency number (such as 911), or the local poison control center can be reached directly by calling the national toll-free Poison Help hotline (1-800-222-1222) from anywhere in the United States.

Poisonous Ingredient

 

The poisonous ingredient includes fluorinated hydrocarbons.

 

Where Found

 

The poisonous ingredients may be found in:

  • Various refrigerants
  • Some fumigants

This list may not be all-inclusive.

 

Symptoms

 

LUNGS

  • Breathing difficulty
  • Throat swelling (which may also cause breathing difficulty)

EYES, EARS, NOSE, AND THROAT

  • Severe pain in the throat
  • Severe pain or burning in the nose, eyes, ears, lips, or tongue
  • Loss of vision

STOMACH AND INTESTINES

  • Severe abdominal pain
  • Vomiting
  • Burns of the food pipe (esophagus)
  • Vomiting blood
  • Blood in the stool

HEART AND BLOOD

  • Irregular heart rhythms
  • Collapse

SKIN

  • Irritation
  • Burn
  • Necrosis (holes) in the skin or underlying tissues

Most symptoms result from breathing in the substance.

 

Home Care

 

Seek emergency medical care right away. Move the person to fresh air. Be careful to avoid being overcome by the fumes while helping someone else.

Contact poison control for further information.

 

Before Calling Emergency

 

Determine the following information:

  • The person's age, weight, and condition
  • The name of the product (ingredients and strength, if known)
  • The time it was swallowed or inhaled
  • The amount swallowed or inhaled

 

Poison Control

 

Your local poison control center can be reached directly by calling the national toll-free Poison Help hotline (1-800-222-1222) from anywhere in the United States. This national hotline will let you talk to experts in poisoning. They will give you further instructions.

This is a free and confidential service. All local poison control centers in the United States use this national number. You should call if you have any questions about poisoning or poison prevention. It does NOT need to be an emergency. You can call for any reason, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can also get online poison help now at poisonhelp.org. Just enter the product, poison, or medicine to get expert help.

 

What to Expect at the Emergency Room

 

Your health care provider will measure and monitor your vital signs, including temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure. You may receive:

Tests that may be done include:

  • Blood and urine tests
  • Chest x-ray
  • Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Treatment may include:

  • Activated charcoal
  • Fluids through the vein (IV)
  • Medicines to treat symptoms or to reverse the effect of the poison (antidote)
  • Laxative
  • Breathing support, including tube through the mouth into the lungs, and breathing machine (ventilator)
  • Tube through the mouth into the stomach to wash out the stomach (gastric lavage)
  • Endoscopy - a camera placed down the throat to see burns in the esophagus and the stomach
  • Washing of the skin (irrigation), perhaps every few hours for several days
  • Skin debridement (surgical removal of burned skin)

 

Outlook (Prognosis)

 

How well a person does depends on the severity of the poisoning and how quickly medical help was received.

Severe lung damage may occur. Survival past 72 hours usually means the person will have a complete recovery.

Sniffing Freon is extremely dangerous and can lead to long-term brain damage and sudden death.

 

 

Open References

References

Nelson LS, Calello DP. Acute poisoning. Goldman L, Cooney KA, eds. Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2024:chap 96.

Theobald JL, Corcoran JN. Poisoning. In: Kliegman RM, St. Geme JW, Blum NJ, et al, eds. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 22nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 94.

Wang GS, Buchanan JA. Hydrocarbons. In: Walls RM, ed. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 10th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 147.

BACK TO TOPText only

 

        Self Care

         

          Tests for Refrigerant poisoning

           
             

            Review Date: 7/1/2025

            Reviewed By: Jesse Borke, MD, CPE, FAAEM, FACEP, Attending Physician at Kaiser Permanente, Orange County, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

            The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

            © 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

            All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.
            © 1997- adam.comAll rights reserved.