Activated charcoal and your lungs..

[Guest guest]

I hadn't been aware of this previously, but out of the blue, it came

up on iequality that inhaling activated charcoal in particulate form

can cause lung disease. I thought that those who advocate its use in

large quantities in home air cleaners should make absolutely sure that

its not possible for the charcoal to become airborne because it can

cause bronchiolitis obliterans.

I am guessing that many applications of activated charcoal in IAQ may

be by people who simply assumed that it was safe.

I'm doing more reading up on this.. Here is one ref - There are many more!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/2766830

Chest. 1989 Sep;96(3):672-4.

Charcoal lung. Bronchiolitis obliterans after aspiration of

activated charcoal.

Elliott CG, Colby TV, TM, Hicks HG.

Department of Medicine, LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City 84143.

Activated charcoal usually provides effective and safe treatment

for drug overdose. We describe a patient who developed bronchiolitis

obliterans and respiratory failure following aspiration of activated

charcoal. This patient had a markedly reduced vital capacity with

roentgenographic evidence of airtrapping. Chest roentgenograms did not

demonstrate the large amount of charcoal identified at postmortem

examination.

PMID: 2766830 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]