Letter: Fatal fish gas

From Stephen James, Food Refrigeration and Process Engineering Research Centre

I was very interested to read the article about three South Korean fishermen who died after inhaling gases from rotting squid (24 April, p 7). A few years ago we were asked by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Bureau to investigate a similar tragedy that led to the death of three seamen on a fishing vessel.

A survey of the literature suggested that some of the microbes that cause fish to rot produce hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen cyanide and carbon dioxide under the same sort of conditions as were present on the vessel. Initial trials with fish and seawater mixtures showed that all three gases could be produced under such conditions.

Further trials showed that at temperatures of 45 °C, it would only take 30 hours for the concentration of hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulphide to reach levels that can be fatal within minutes of inhaling the gas. Even at a relatively low temperature of 20 °C, these gases reached potentially life-threatening concentrations after 68 hours.

I had the salutary experience of presenting our results at a coroner’s court. The final recommendation was that further investigations should be carried out and ventilation systems installed to prevent further tragedies. As far as we know, no funding for such investigations was ever forthcoming.

Langford, Somerset, UK