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General Forum Topics > General Q and A Forum > Did I inhale toxic gases?
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Q: Did I inhale toxic gases?
asked by: DoctorQuestion on February 10th, 2007
Hello

I work at Burger King and have done so for a while. We have at the restaurant this big machine that flame-grills frozen burger meat put into it.

Recently however, there were some inspectors visiting the restaurant, checking some things with the machine. In an attempt to fix something I presume, something happened which led smoke to come out and fill the entire restaurant. The smoke was dense and of gray color – it had a vicious smell of fat/oil and meat.

I was standing at the machine while this happened; I inevitably inhaled the smoke directly for app. 5 minutes.

I didn’t have any acute symptoms afterwards, maybe a little breathlessness; a feeling that air didn’t fill my lungs as effectively as usual. It is now a couple of days later and I guess I’m fine, but now I’m more concerned with the potential long-term effects of this inhalation of smoke.

Could this have caused any permanent (maybe long-term) damage to any of my organs?


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Dr. Nikola Gjuzelov , MD
replied on February 23rd, 2007
General Q&A Answer A2357
That smoke from the grill probably contains mainly CO2, which is not a toxic gas. The other gases in the smoke (CO, NO2, SO2) are toxic... but inhaled in very small amounts can’t cause any permanent damage to any of your organs.


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