A couple suffering acute respiratory illness due to waterproofing spray exposure

The patients were a 28-year-old man and a his 27-year-old wife. The husband smoked a cigarette immediately after using a waterproofing spray, and developed fever, cough, and dyspnea 15 min later. The wife had nausea 2 hours later. Nine hours later, the husband visited a local clinic, and was referred to our hospital because of hypoxemia. In addition, chest CT showed ill-defined areas of increased density, predominantly in the bilateral upper lung fields, with interlobular septal thickening, and he was hospitalized. Although the wife was asymptomatic at the time of examination, she had chest CT findings similar to those of her husband, and was also hospitalized. After admission, the husband received steroid pulse therapy and oxygen inhalation for his symptoms and hypoxemia, with return of arterial blood gas analysis results to normal on the third day. The wife had no symptoms or hypoxemia during her hospital stay. Their chest CT findings improved on the seventh day after admission, and they were discharged. Thus, it appears that the couple suffered from acute respiratory illness due to waterproofing spray exposure, and probably heat degradation products from cigarette smoking caused the husband to have severe symptoms.