The Civil Defense Directorate in Jeddah arrested an Arab national after finding him in possession of phosphine. The expatriate was carrying the dangerous chemical in his car and has been handed over to Jeddah police, the directorate said.

The man was using phosphine to clean an apartment but the fumes affected a citizen and his son who were rushed to King Abdulaziz Medical City.

The Civil Defense was later forced to bear the cost of re-housing nine families to prevent exposure to the harmful substance.

Phosphine is a toxic, flammable and colorless gas. Pure Phospine is odorless but technical samples have a foul smell akin to garlic or rotting fish.

Used as an insecticide, aluminum phosphide interacts with air droplets in the atmosphere to form phosphine gas where 3ml or a one-gram pill can kill a child if inhaled.

Aluminum phosphide is banned in the Kingdom but cases of poisoning and death have continued to arise in the past few years. The last reported case was of a woman and her daughter succumbing to the gas.

The gas can leak through air vents in homes to surrounding areas and therefore should only be used in uninhabited areas and under the supervision of experts.

Symptoms of aluminum phosphide exposure are similar to those of food poisoning where the affected individual has breathing problems, suffers from fatigue and nausea and coldness in the limbs. People exposed to the chemical should be taken to hospital immediately.