A rare fatal case of wood preservative,monochloro-naphthalene (MCN), poisoning

A rare case of poisoning by the wood preservative Xylamon^® TH-Clear (active ingredient: 60% 1-chloronaphthalene) is reported.A mentally disordered carpenter, 44 years old, ingested an unknown amount of Xylamon^® and died in about 2 hours. Analysis for 1-chloronaphthalene was performed by TLC, IR and GC methods. GC analysis for 1-chloronaphthalene showed the concentration in the peripheral blood to be 2.46 μg/ml and the bile concentration to be 75.5 μg/ml. The total amount in the stomach contents was 27.7 g.