The Safe and Healthy Autopsy
Julian L Burton, Guy Rutty in The Hospital Autopsy, 2010
Aluminium phosphide is present in some pesticides and reports of suicidal ingestion exist (Anger et al., 2000). When aluminium phosphide comes into contact with water it liberates copious volumes of hydrogen phosphide (phosphine, PH3), an odourless and colourless gas (Sharma and Reader, 2005). This gas is toxic at concentrations of 2 ppm (Anger et al., 2000). Once again the risk is greatest on opening the stomach and this should be performed in a fume cupboard.
Evidence for the efficacy of the emetic PP796 in paraquat SL20 formulations – a narrative review of published and unpublished evidence
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2022
The company has stated that medical experts believe that increasing the dose of PP796 would increase toxicity to humans [81]. However, paraquat SL20 is highly toxic, killing people who unintentionally ingest small amounts of the 20% solution [4]. It also kills a very high number of people who ingest small amounts of paraquat in suicide gestures. In the 1st Inteon study [31], the case fatality after proven “suicidal” exposure was 72.9% and 63.3% for Gramoxone® or Inteon formulations, respectively. High concentration (56%) 3 g aluminium phosphide tablets are the only other pesticide with similar case fatality [13,82,83].
Effect of pesticide ban on suicide trend – a 20-year study from a tertiary care center in Central Kerala from 2001 to 2020
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2022
M. Indira, Manu Johns Chowallur, Aryamol M. K., Chien-Yu Lin, Shu-Sen Chang, Mannil Sooraj, Jithin Thomas
There are similar reports from North-west India on reduction of mortality after pesticide regulation. One large case series showed aluminium phosphide and anticholinesterases were common agents used for poisoning and had high fatality ratio [22,23]. Case fatality ratio of aluminium phosphide declined after 2000 with the restriction of use of 3 gm aluminium phosphide [24]. Aluminium phosphide was not commonly identified in our study, instead zinc phosphide was identified which is commonly used as rodenticide.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Ammonia
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- Redox
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