Wow. Simply unbelievable. Very scary and I already know about palytoxins! I’ve gained a new respect for these beautiful yet dangerous animals. All it takes is 64 micro grams and your a stiff!!! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palytoxin <– This guy made it on the wiki article. 

 There is no intuition that will arm you with the fact that palythoa toxin can become airborne.  Such a disparaging remark shows your true character as a human.  I’m happy that you let all of us know how perfect you are!  Cheers to you!

Please keep us posted and we will pray for his speedy recovery.
This could have been any of us and definately a valuable lesson for all.
Dave

I think every palytoxin incident I’ve read about involves inhalation. I hope more people know that gloves aren’t enough.

+1  every hobbyist case ive heard of involves inhaling steam while washing rocks  

Are you talking about this?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2117572&highlight=toxin+hospital 

He was released and is doing good. This story is from 2 months ago.

 Different case. This one happened last week in Ohio.

Remember, there is no antidote for palytoxin–all the hospital can do is to give you supportive care: IE, put you on a respirator if you stop breathing, keep your heart going if it wants to stop, etc. That’s why it is CRITICAL to go to the ER as soon as you start feeling poorly. The sooner you get there, the more likely it is that you will survive.

This has happened before:  http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1083843

Always be careful….

Yes, they can be found as strays on rocks you buy, but most of us deliberately buy them because they are cheap (not all of them), hardy, and very colorful. Different types contain different concentrations to the palytoxin, but they must all be treated with the same respect.

If the guy wore no protective gear you could claim natural selection but he was informed. Just did not expect it to go airborne. It was a stupid troll comment.

 Read Calfo’s “Book of Coral Propagation, Vol. 1″. He’s managed to poison himself through (self admitted) dumb behavior involving hand towels.

I am writing this from my bed.

On Monday, July 23rd, 2012 I
nearly died from inhaling Palytoxin. I am an Aquatic Specialist from NY
and I was at a customers house working on his tank. I was asked to
exterminate a colony of Palythoa that had spread throughout the tank and
was presumably killing off other corals. I first tried talking the
customer out of exterminating the coral as I do not like “killing”
anything. The customer gave it some thought. I mentioned that I could
replace his rock in exchange for the removal of the Palythoa covered
rock. He loved my original reef building design so much that he did not
want to part with the pieces.

I proceeded, without ANY protection
except gloves, to pull each piece of rock from the tank, scrub them with
a wire brush in a tote container, then replace them. I came to my third
piece, a mother colony, (a mother of all mother colonies) and decided
it would take too long to use a wire brush. The customer mentioned he
had a slop sink in the basement I could use. I brought the basketball
sized rock, which was completely covered with Palythoa, into the
basement. I then proceeded to place the rock in the sink, turn on just
the hot water, and plug the drain so that the sink may fill. I stood
over the piece as the sink filled waiting for the water level to cover
the top most part of the Palythoa covered rock. I then turned the water
off and headed back up to the tank. At that point I started coughing and
choking hard. My throat started closing up and it was becoming
difficult to breath. There was a disgusting bitter taste in the back of
my throat. I knew it was from the coral but had no idea how
severe it was. I remained on the job site for approximately two and a
half, three more hours, completing the job. I brought the rest of the
pieces, including the mother colony, right outside where I used a power
washer to complete the job. (which, by the way, turned out to work the
best and, in hindsight, I wish I would have thought of that first). I
finished the coral removal, replaced the rocks,packed up and left for
lunch and my next account. I stopped at a Phil’s vitamins where I know
the nutritionist. He gave me some things to take and I left. I went to
get food, tried to eat, but couldn’t. I went to my next account, the job
was too large to start at 4:30pm. Besides, I started feeling very ill
at that point. I left for my shop. I arrived, spoke with the coworker I
spoke with earlier and once again, he insisted I go to the hospital. He
did some research on palytoxin inhalation. He didn’t want to scare me so
he left the info up on the monitor and let me look at it if I so chose
to. I did. Very frightening stuff. I then went out to my vehicle,
started getting chills over my whole body, and started convulsing
uncontrollably. I called me fiance, who is a nurse, and she made several
calls to get me help. My friend/coworker arrived back at the shop and
took me to the ER immediately. I was in and out of consciousness, and
all I could think about was that someone needed to call the customer and
warn him and his family to get out of the house and air it out. (The
entire time I was there the A/C was on, all the windows closed and the
toxins filled up the house eventually sending everyone to the hospital),
my lungs were burning and extremely painful. I was hyperventilating,
(55 breaths per minute), and my temperature spiked up to 104.7. I was
taken into the ER right away and they started me on IV fluids, fever
reducer, and they drew blood. After a few hours, four bags of IV fluids,
fever reducer, a chest x-ray, an EKG, urine samples and blood samples
later, I was feeling better. Enough to sign myself out, against the
doctors will. I felt that I was being pressured into taking antibiotics
that I knew I did not need. My WBC count was high, because I was
poisoned, not because I had a bacterial infection. (even in highly
trained professions it is hard for individuals to think outside the box)
Considering how rare this is, outside the box thinking was needed.

I signed myself out of the hospital and after about twenty minutes, on
the ride home, my symptoms started up again. Severe chills, convulsing,
etc. I went home and laid in bed going in and out of consciousness and
sleep, breathing very shallow and rapid. My fiance came home from her
graveyard shift and sat with me, begging me to go back to the hospital. I
refused. She kept ice packs on my head, monitored my temp, (H104.3- L
99.8), made me drink as much water as possible, put wet cloths on my
head, neck, wrists, and ankles, kept checking my blood pressure, and
basically saved my life. (By the way, while in the hospital I had to
request over and over for ice packs which they gave me sparingly). Then
the severe joint pain set in which I liken to a severe case of the flu
times 100! These symptoms lasted approximately three days. The shallow
breathing subsided, the fever broke, the sweat that came out of me had a
sweet odor which eventually started to nauseate me. I had bloody sputum
which also smelled sweet.

Here I am, 22 days later, still bed ridden with activity intolerance,
dizzy spells, confusion, disorientation, shortness of breath, an
intolerance to heat/humidity, head ache,(migraine), blurry vision,
symptoms of sleep apnea, severe fatigue, muscle weakness, back and neck
pain, lung pain/discomfort, jumpiness,(hyper sensitivity to sound),
hyper sensitivity to light and smell, ringing in ears,(low, deep hum),
blotchy spots of black and white in peripheral vision, and bright points
of light that streak across plane of vision then vanish. I am currently
on a detox protocol, plenty of water and fluids, and have multiple
appointments with a pulmonologist, a neurologist, and soon a toxicologist, if workers comp can find me one.

Lesson: What you don’t know CAN KILL you…

The family has since returned home and has returned back to normal
health. I, on the other hand, getting a very high dose standing directly
over the vaporized toxin, am suffering from the very debilitating
consequences of my ignorance or the lack of safety equipment and lack of
information on my employers part. Palythoa Toxica is something to be
respected and feared by all who work/play with it and I am putting forth
a proposition that there be posted warnings and information on the
dangers of palytoxin as ingestion of this toxin means certain death and
inhalation’s effects remain to be seen.

Michael

Aquatic Specialist