Death of Gloria Ramirez

Gloria Cecilia Ramirez (January 11, 1963 – February 19, 1994)^[1] was an American woman who was dubbed the Toxic Lady or the Toxic Woman by the media when several hospital workers became ill after airborne exposure to her body and blood. Ramirez had been admitted to the emergency room suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. While treating Ramirez, three hospital workers fainted, and others experienced symptoms such as shortness of breath and muscle spasms. Five workers required hospitalization, one of whom remained in an intensive care unit for two weeks. Ramirez herself died from complications related to her cancer shortly after arriving at the hospital.

The incident was initially considered to be a case of mass hysteria. An investigation by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory suggested that Ramirez had been self-administering dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a pain treatment. The oxygen from the mask provided by paramedics during her transport to the hospital likely converted the DMSO into dimethyl sulfate (DMS), a highly toxic and carcinogenic alkylating agent. Although dimethyl sulfate has a very low vapor pressure at body temperature, it is believed to have transitioned to a gaseous state due to the vacuum inside the vacutainer. This is similar to how water boils at a lower temperature when exposed to low pressure. This theory has been endorsed by the Riverside Coroner's Office and published in the journal Forensic Science International.