Benzene is an organic hydrocarbon that is a natural component of petroleum, it is a colorless, highly flammable liquid with a sweet smell, it is partly responsible for the aroma of gasoline. Benzene is mainly used as a solvent and a precursor chemical to other materials like ethylbenzene, cumene, cyclohexane, and nitrobenzene, which are used in the manufacture of plastics, rubbers, lubricants and dyes. Benzene is highly toxic, breathing benzene fumes can be fatal due to causing vascular congestion in the brain (which is what caused Weaver's seizure); when ingested it causes irritation of the gastrointestinal tract, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea, dizziness, sleepiness, seizures, rapid heart rate, and death. Benzene is also a carcinogen and chronic exposure can cause aplastic anemia, acute leukemia, bone marrow abnormalities and cardiovascular disease.
This episode won an Emmy for Sound Editing and was nominated for Sound Mixing and Single Camera Picture Editing.
First appearance of Kyle Richards as Nurse Dori Kerns. Richards would go on to appear in 21 episodes of ER through season 13. Richards is best known for portraying Lindsay, one of the two children watched over by Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the original Halloween.