Deaths and severe toxicity at an electronic dance-music festival in NYC

This report — from the CDC and the New York City Department of Health — describes the full investigation into adverse medical events associated with the 3-day Labor Day weekend electronic dance-music (EDM) festival. (After the 2 deaths, the third day was cancelled.) The authors identified 22 adverse medical events requiring transfer to an emergency room. Nine cases were severe — defined as involving seizure, intubation, ICU admission, or death. Specimens for toxicology testing were available from 17 patients. The following were the key findings: Five patients were admitted to the ICU. One patient who died tested positive for MDMA (ecstasy); the other fatality was positive for MDMA and methylone. Six of the 22 patients transported to hospital had ingested ethanol only. The most common drugs identified were methylone (9 patients), MDMA (5 patients) and methamphetamine (2) Among the 9 severe cases, 8 had ingested a stimulant such as methylone with or without alcohol, and 6 had ingested one or more stimulants without alcohol. Among the 22 patients transported to hospital, common abnormalities included temperature >102oF (4 patients), pulse rate > 100/min (14), seizure activity (6), sodium <135 mEq/L (5), creatinine >1.3 mg/dL (4), and creatinine kinase >1000 IU/L (7). For the 2014 festival, safety measures were instituted and a  surveillance system was put into place to quickly identify adverse health events. Despite this, there were 2 severe cases thi...
Source: The Poison Review - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Medical death ecstasy electronic dance-music festival fatality mdma methamphetamine methylone new york Source Type: news