World War One gas horror of rescue workers as they try to help poison pellet man. dailyrecord.uk. Apr 8 2009.Emergency workers were caught up in a World War I gas alert after treating a man who had taken poison pellets.Six 999 staff needed hospital treatment after they had been contaminated with deadly phosgene.The gas was escaping from the man they were trying to save. It’s understood water he had taken converted the rabbit poison he’d swallowed into phosgene, which was used as a chemical weapon in WWI. [ See ]