JournalStar.com

Police: Man dared nephew to sniff chlorine

By The Associated Press
Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 - 01:14:15 pm CDT
GRAND ISLAND— Hospital officials say a 5-year-old boy who sniffed pool chlorine on a dare by his uncle will likely remain in intensive care for another week.

Grand Island police say the boy’s uncle, 23-year-old Pablo Andrade-Escobar, remains jailed on two counts of misdemeanor child abuse.

Capt. Robert Falldorf said Thursday that the boy was in an induced coma with damaged lung tissue.

Falldorf says Andrade-Escobar opened a canister of pool chlorine on Sunday and dared his nephew and a 7-year-old friend of the boy to smell it.

They did and soon vomited.

The 7-year-old recovered quickly. The younger boy was taken to a local hospital, then to Children’s Hospital in Omaha.

Inhaling a concentrated doses of chlorine gas can be fatal.