What harm does camphor do to children?

Camphor balls are a commonly used item in daily life. Their main use is to repel insects and prevent moisture, bringing a lot of convenience to people's lives. However, mothballs have a more pungent smell because they are made from camphor tree extracts, which contain more natural chemicals. Excessive concentration can cause side effects to the body. Let’s take a look at the harm that camphor can do to children.

Mothballs are very harmful to children. Mothballs are essential for moisture-proofing and moth-proofing, but few people know that the substances volatilized from mothballs can enter the human body through the skin along with clothing, causing great harm to the human body. Camphor balls, commonly known as sanitary balls, are mostly made with naphthalene extracted from coal tar as a substitute, with a small amount of trichlorobenzene added.

Many synthetic mothballs and anti-mildew tablets contain substances such as PDCB (paradichlorobenzene) and naphthalene. Normal adults have glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in their red blood cells. This enzyme quickly combines with volatile naphthol to form a non-toxic substance that is excreted from the body with urine, so it will not cause adverse reactions to the adult body.

But for young babies, this enzyme is easily lacking in their red blood cells or its activity is immature, which will cause changes in the red blood cell membrane and affect the integrity of the membrane. Naphthol can easily enter the baby's red blood cells, destroying the integrity of the red blood cell membrane and causing acute hemolysis, which is mainly manifested as rapidly progressive anemia, severe jaundice, strong tea-like urine, heart failure, etc. Severe jaundice can also develop into kernicterus, which can be life-threatening or leave sequelae such as mental retardation, movement disorders, and hearing impairment.

In addition, the naphthalene in this type of insect and mildew-proof chemical is also highly toxic and can seriously affect the kidneys, central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract of young children. If a child ingests 2 grams of effective naphthalene, it may cause death. In addition, the paradichlorobenzene contained in it can cause damage to the nervous and blood systems of young children. Even for adults, excessive exposure can lead to skin cancer, leukemia, etc. For children, the younger they are, the greater the toxic effects of mothballs.