A new risk for Jewish kids at Passover: paraffin oil lamps
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press Writer
April 3, 2004, 4:06 PM EST
NEW YORK -- As Jewish families prepare for Passover, their toddlers face a newly discovered danger: poisoning from the lamp oil that lights up their holy days, a doctor says.
"The lamps have a metal tube that serves as a wick. And when the lamp is not lit, the tube looks like a perfect straw to a child," said Dr. Robert J. Hoffman of Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center.
In this city with the largest number of Orthodox Jews outside Israel, the risk of paraffin oil poisoning among Orthodox children is 370 times higher than in the general population, says a new study led by Hoffman and published in this month's issue of the Pediatrics journal.
The doctor came across the danger after noticing that on many Fridays when he worked for the city's Poison Control Center, urgent calls came in about kids who had swallowed the oil.
"It turned out they were Jewish," Hoffman said, "and the accident often happened during Sabbath," from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday, or on Jewish holidays like Passover, which this year begins on Monday.
In addition to the lamp itself, the plastic nozzle of the container from which the oil is poured poses an equal danger of being mistaken for a straw.
"Plus, toddlers have the tendency to put anything in their mouth," said Hoffman, who specializes in pediatric emergencies and medical toxicology.
Paraffin oil, a hydrocarbon, triggers respiratory distress, including coughing, vomiting, inflammation of the lungs or lethargy, Hoffman said. One little girl suffered such severe lung injury that she had to be put on a respirator for weeks.
Hoffman and three other researchers reviewed all exposures to paraffin lamp oil reported in New York between Jan. 1, 2000, and Feb. 1, 2003, among the almost 2 million city children under 18. More than 40,000 of those are Orthodox Jews.
Of a total of 45 cases of oil poisoning, 32 involved Orthodox Jewish children whose average age was under 2, many from heavily Orthodox neighborhoods like Borough Park and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Nine of the 45 children could not be identified by religion.
None died, but most had to receive medical treatment; some recovered on their own at home.
According to Jewish tradition, bread, wine and a burning flame mark the observation of holy days, linking Jews to the wheat, grapes and olives of ancient Israel (the lamps originally burned olive oil).
According to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, almost 200,000 New Yorkers are strictly Orthodox, compared to more than half a million in Israel.
Hoffman urged families in areas with significant Orthodox populations, including the New York City area, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Toronto, to keep close tabs on their kids, consider using a fuel that does not contain hydrocarbon, or switch to candles.
"There are non-Jews who use paraffin lamp oil, but some Jews use the oil religiously every week and therefore, their children are in greater danger." said Hoffman.
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On the Net:
Full text of study:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/4/e377
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
