Manufacturers of industrial gases have been urged to introduce more effective safeguards against cylinders being interfered with.
The call came from a jury foreman at an inquest in Sligo yesterday on a 14-year-old schoolboy who died after inhaling toxic gas.
The Sligo coroner, Dr Desmond Moran, told the inquest that, in accordance with medical evidence, Wayne Gibbons, of Carroll Drive, Cranmore Road, Sligo, died at Sligo General Hospital on June 15th last from cardiac arrhythmia as a result of inhaling toxic gases at Dunnes Stores, Cranmore Road, Sligo, on the same day.
The boy had gone with other youths to the back of the store where the industrial gas cylinders used for refrigeration were stored in a cage. A Dunnes Stores manager told the inquest the cage housing the cylinders was usually locked, but was not locked that day.
The inquest was told by one of a group of boys in the vicinity that Wayne was staggering and "fell to the ground laughing" after walking away from one of the gas cylinders. The other boys tried to revive him and an ambulance was quickly on the scene.
The jury foreman, Mr Michael Power, told the inquest that taps and gas cylinders should be locked at all times.
Mr Power also requested Dunnes to change the system whereby buns taken off the shelves were left out for collection in the store yard.
Dr Moran, extending sympathy to the Gibbons family on the loss of their son, said the tragedy might become a "milestone" in preventing a similar tragedy in the future.