# Poison Gas People

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 5, 2002, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099 "2002-09-05T06:27:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099/1 "2002-09-05T06:27:30Z")

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Back in the mid-90’s there were accounts of several people on the West Coast being rushed to the emergency room. Once there, as the doctors were beginning treatment, the patients’ bodies began to emit a noxious gas that soon overcame the hospital staff, and IIRC, even caused the _death_ of one or two of them.

Anybody know if they ever found out what was responsible for this?

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099/2 "2002-09-05T08:11:40Z")

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I’ve heard about this - I seem to recall that the ‘official’ verdict was mass hysteria, but I can’t find anything on Snopes.

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**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099/3 "2002-09-05T11:44:22Z")

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Cecil did a column on this. I don’t have the cite presently, but it was in one of his books, as well.

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**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099/4 "2002-09-05T11:52:08Z")

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Here is the link to Cecil’s column on the subject.

[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_107.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_107.html)

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poison-gas-people/127099/5 "2002-09-05T15:30:23Z")

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Google about under “toxic lady” to get more stuff besides Cecil’s article. In particular, an RN named Camilla Cracchiolo did a lot of investigation of this thing in alt.folklore.urban. Here’s an entry by her from the AFU archives, dated 1995:

[http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/toxic\_lady\_faq.html](http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/toxic_lady_faq.html)

Followup from Madeleine Page a year later, essentially reporting Cecil’s article:

[http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/toxic\_lady\_zotti.html](http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/toxic_lady_zotti.html)

And some later followup, incorporating and supplementing Cracchiola’s material:

[http://www.emergency-nurse.com/legends/toxic.htm](http://www.emergency-nurse.com/legends/toxic.htm)