Santiago I
Servicio de Urgencias, Hospital de Navarra, 31008 Pamplona, Spain.
An Sist Sanit Navar. 2003;26 Suppl 1:181-90.
Contamination by chemical products is a clinical situation whose handling requires very specific knowledge by the physicians in the emergency services, since they must know the most frequent types of chemical agents and their mechanism of action. This type of contamination makes it necessary for there to be concrete plans of action in the hospital milieu and coordination with the emergency outpatient mechanisms. To the risk of being surrounded by chemical products on an industrial scale on a daily basis, and the risk of leaks and accidents during transport and even in private homes, there is now added the possible use of different chemical agents as weapons of mass destruction, both in military conflicts and in terrorist acts.
