Volatile lipophilic substances management in case of fatal sniffing
Section snippets
Introduction and background
Inhalants' abuse in order to “get high”, now commonly referred to as volatile substance abuse (VSA) or volatile substance misuse (VSM) has become increasingly popular among young people and represents a social problem in many countries worldwide. Propane and n-butane are two volatile alkanes having respectively 3 and 4 carbon atoms in line. They are both easily distributed to lipid-rich tissues such as the brain and have sedative effect on the central nervous system. Propane is less toxic than
Summary
A 29-year-old man, well nourished, was found unconscious by his cellmate on the floor of the bathroom of his cell. The cellmate, awakened by the strong smell of gas, rushed into the bathroom and found the man unconscious next to a camping gas stove with gas escaping (Fig. 1). The Emergency Medical Technicians attempted cardiac massage, but the man was declared dead shortly after and the body was moved to the morgue.
Site survey
The prison cell was examined in cooperation with scene of crime officers
Discussion
In Italy, the voluntary inhalation of gas cylinders is a widespread phenomenon in the prison population, where the use of gas stove in the cell is allowed and regulated by law.12, 13 In these cases, the specialists involved in the determination of the cause of death need to properly handle the samples of biologic material to allow the analysis of volatile substances, by using gas-tight containers.14 The forensic strategy in this kind of death implies different steps: evidences collection such
Conclusions
In this case of a 29-year-old man, found unconscious by his cellmate on the floor of the bathroom of his cell, the forensic pathologist's timely intervention on the scene of crime, the early involvement of the forensic toxicologist and his active participation at autopsy were fundamental for the resolution of the case. The sampling approach adopted by forensic pathologists and forensic toxicologists and the analyses by GC-MS played a key role to obtain the forensic identification of butane and
Conflicts of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest.
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