Chapter 6

Toxicology:
Poisons and Alcohol

“All substances are poisons.

There is none which is not.
The right dose differentiates
a poison and remedy.”
—Paracelsus (1495-1541). Swiss
physician and chemist
 Toxicology and Alcohol

Students will learn:

 A quantitative approach to
toxicology.
 The danger of using alcohol.

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Chapter 6
 Toxicology and Alcohol
Students will be able to:
 Discuss the connection of blood alcohol
levels to the law, incapacity, and test
results.
 Understand the vocabulary of poisons.
 Design and conduct scientific
investigations.
 Use technology and mathematics to
improve investigations and
communications.
 Identify questions and concepts that guide
scientific investigations.
 Communicate and defend a scientific
argument.
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Chapter 6
 Toxicology

Definition—the study of the adverse effects of

chemicals or physical agents on living
organisms.
Types:
 Environmental—air, water, soil
 Consumer—foods, cosmetics, drugs
 Medical
 Forensic

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Chapter 6
 Forensic Toxicology

 Postmortem—medical examiner or
coroner
 Criminal—motor vehicle accidents (MVA)
 Workplace—drug testing
 Sports—human and animal
 Environment—industrial, catastrophic,
terrorism
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 Toxicology

Toxic substances may:

 Be a cause of death
 Contribute to death
 Cause impairment
 Explain behavior

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 Historical Perspective
of Poisoners

 Olympias—a famous Greek poisoner

 Locusta—personal poisoner of Emperor Nero
 Lucretia Borgia—father was Pope Alexander VI
 Madame Giulia Toffana—committed over 600
successful poisonings, including two Popes.
 Hieronyma Spara—formed a society to teach women
how to murder their husbands
 Madame de Brinvilliers and Catherine Deshayes—
French poisoners.
AND many others through modern times.

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 The Severity of the Problem

“If all those buried in our cemeteries who

were poisoned could raise their hands,
we would probably be shocked by the
numbers.”
—John Harris Trestrail, “Criminal Poisoning”

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Chapter 6
People of Historical Significance

Mathieu Orfila—known as
the father of forensic
toxicology, published in
1814 “Traite des Poisons”
which described the first
systematic approach to the
study of the chemistry and
physiological nature of
poisons.

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Chapter 6
 Aspects of Toxicity

 Dosage
 The chemical or physical form of the substance
 The mode of entry into the body
 Body weight and physiological conditions of the
victim, including age and sex
 The time period of exposure
 The presence of other chemicals in the body or
in the dose
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Chapter 6
 Lethal Dose

 LD50—refers to the dose of a substance

that kills half the test population, usually
within four hours
 Expressed in milligrams of substance per
kilogram of body weight

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Chapter 6
 Death by Water
Hold your wee for a wii
 In 2007, a mother tried to win a wii game for
her son at a radio show contest

 Contestants had to drink a water bottle every 5

minutes without using the bathroom

 The mother died of water poisining

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Chapter 6
How much water is too much water?

 1.5 to 2.0 gallons can be toxic to your body

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Chapter 6
 Toxicity Classes

LD50 (rat,oral) Correlation to Ingestion Toxicity

by 150 lb Adult Human
<1mg/kg a taste to a drop extremely

1-50 mg/kg to a teaspoon highly

50-500 mg/kg to an ounce moderately

500-5000 mg/kg to a pint slightly

5-15 g/kg to a quart practically non-toxic

Over 15g/kg more than 1 quart relatively harmless

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Chapter 6
 Federal Regulatory Agencies

 Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
 Consumer Product Safety Commission
 Department of Transportation (DOT)
 Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA)
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Chapter 6
 Symptoms of Various Types
of Poisoning
Type of Poison
 Caustic Poison (lye)
 Carbon Monoxide
 Sulfuric acid
 Hydrochloric acid
 Nitric acid
 Phosphorous
 Cyanide
 Arsenic, Mercury
 Methyl (wood) or
Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
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Symptom/Evidence
Characteristic burns around the lips and
mouth of the victim
Red or pink patches on the chest and thighs,
unusually bright red lividity
Black vomit
Greenish-brown vomit
Yellow vomit
Coffee brown vomit. Onion or garlic odor
Burnt almond odor
Pronounced diarrhea
Nausea and vomiting, unconsciousness,
possibly blindness
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 Critical Information
on Poisons
 Form  Symptoms resulting from an acute
 Common color exposure
 Characteristic odor  Symptoms resulting from chronic
 Solubility exposure
 Taste  Disease states mimicked by
 Common sources poisoning
 Lethal dose  Notes relating to the victim
 Mechanism  Specimens from victim
 Possible methods of administration  Analytical detection methods
 Time interval of onset of  Known toxic levels
symptoms.  Notes pertinent to analysis of
poison
 List of cases in which poison was
used
—John Trestrail from “Criminal Poisoning”
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Chapter 6
 To Prove a Case

 Prove a crime was committed

 Motive
 Intent
 Access to poison
 Access to victim
 Death was caused by poison
 Death was homicidal

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Chapter 6
 Forensic Autopsy
Look for:
 Irritated tissues
 Characteristic odors
 Mees lines—single transverse white bands on nails.
Order toxicological screens
 Postmortem concentrations should be done at the
scene for comparison
 No realistic calculation of dose can be made from a
single measurement
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Chapter 6
 Human Specimens for Analysis

 Blood  Liver tissue

 Urine  Brain tissue
 Vitreous Humor of  Kidney tissue
Eyes  Hair/nails
 Bile
 Gastric contents

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Chapter 6
 Alcohol—Ethyl Alcohol (C2H5OH)
 Most abused drug in America
 About 40% of all traffic deaths are alcohol-related
 Toxic—affecting the central nervous system, especially
the brain
 Colorless liquid, generally diluted in water
 Acts as a depressant
 Alcohol appears in blood within minutes of consumption;
30-90 minutes for full absorption
 Detoxification—about 90% in the liver
 About 5% is excreted unchanged in breath, perspiration
and urine
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Chapter 6
 Rate of Absorption

Depends on:
 amount of alcohol consumed
 the alcohol content of the beverage
 time taken to consume it
 quantity and type of food present in the
stomach
 physiology of the consumer
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Chapter 6
 BAC
Blood Alcohol Content

 Expressed as percent weight per volume of

blood
 Legal limits in all states is 0.08%
 Parameters influencing BAC:
 Body weight
 Alcoholic content
 Number of beverages consumed
 Time between consumption

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Chapter 6
 BAC

 Burn off rate of 0.015% per hour but can

vary:
 Male
BAC male = 0.071 x (oz) x (% alcohol)
body weight
 Female
BAC female = 0.085 x (oz) x (% alcohol)
body weight

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 Field Tests
 Preliminary tests—used to determine the degree of
suspect’s physical impairment and whether or not
another test is justified.
 Psychophysical tests—3 Basic Tests
 Horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN): follow a pen or small
flashlight, tracking left to right with one’s eyes. In general,
wavering at 45 degrees indicates 0.10 BAC.
 Nine Step walk and turn (WAT): comprehend and execute
two or more simple instructions at one time.
 One-leg stand (OLS): maintain balance, comprehend and
execute two or more simple instructions at one time.

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Chapter 6
 Implied Consent Law

Driver must consent to tests or lose license

Implemented to prevent refusal to take breath test
on grounds of self incrimination

Chapter 6
 Mouth Alcohol

 Alcohol present in a breath test subject’s mouth

 Presence of mouth alcohol causes the concentration
detected in exhaled breath to be higher then the actual
blood concentration
 Sources include
 Regurgitation
 Belching
 Recent intake of an alcoholic beverage
 Recent gargling of alcohol containing mouthwash

Chapter 6
 Forensics 4/1/13

 Welcome back! Any good spring break

stories?
 Don’t forget to turn in extra credit assignment
 Midterm Friday: includes CH 6 quiz
(toxicology) CH. 8 blood, CH. 5 Drugs
 CH 6 supp questions are due this Fri 4/5/12
(Bring your textbook Wednesday)
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Chapter 6
 Case Study

Read the Case Study: Death by Tylenol

 Answer the following questions as a group:
1. Where did this event take place?
2. What is Product Tampering ?
3. How do you think the investigators
determined the capsules contained a quantity of poison
“ten thousand times what was needed to kill an average
person” ?
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Chapter 6
 The Metabolism of alcohol

 Metabolism:
The transformation of a chemical in the
body to other chemicals to facilitate its
elimination from the body

Happens in three steps: absorption,

distribution and elimination
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 Absorption

 Alcohol enters the blood stream by passing

across the wall of the stomach and small
intestine

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 Distribution

 The alcohol becomes evenly distributed

throughout the watery parts of the body
(including the blood and the brain)

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 Elimination

 Alcohol is eliminated in two ways:

1.oxidation: the combination of alcohol with
oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water (oxidation
occurs in the liver)
2. excretion: elimination of alcohol from the body
in an unchanged state (breath and urine)
95% of consumed alcohol eliminated through
oxidation
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Chapter 6
 Alveoli

 Small sacks in the lungs that exchange oxygen,

carbon dioxide and other gases with the blood

 Carbon dioxide and other volatile chemicals

(alcohol) are then expelled through the nose
and mouth

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Chapter 6
 Henry’s Law
 When a volatile chemical is dissolved in a liquid and is
brought to equilibrium with air, there is a fixed ratio
between the concentration of the volatile compound in
the air and its concentration in the liquid; this ratio is
constant for a given temperature. THEREFORE, the
concentration of alcohol in breath is proportional to that in
the blood.
 This ratio of alcohol in the blood to alcohol in the alveolar
air is approximately 2100 to 1. In other words 1 ml of
blood will contain nearly the same amount of alcohol as
2100 ml of breath.
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Chapter 6
 The Breathalyzer
 More practical in the field
 Collects and measures alcohol content of alveolar breath
 Breath sample mixes with 3 ml of 0.025 % K2Cr2O7 in sulfuric
acid and water
2K2Cr2O7 + 3C 2H5OH + 8H 2SO4  2Cr2(SO4)3 + 2K2SO4 + 3CH3COOH + 11 H2O
 Potassium dichromate is yellow, as concentration decreases its
light absorption diminishes so the breathalyzer indirectly
measures alcohol concentration by measuring light absorption of
potassium dichromate before and after the reaction with alcohol

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Chapter 6
 The Breathalyzer

 More modern breathalyzers don’t use

chemicals
1. Infrared Light Absorption: Alcohol
present in a subject’s breath reacts with a
particular wavelength of inrared light
2. The Fuel Cell: a chemical reaction
involving alcohol produces electricity (electrons)
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Chapter 6
 Generalizations
 During absorption, the concentration of alcohol in arterial
blood will be higher than in venous blood.
 Breath tests reflect alcohol concentration in the pulmonary
artery.
 The breathalyzer also can react with acetone (as found
with diabetics), acetaldehyde, methanol, isopropyl alcohol,
and paraldehyde, but these are toxic and their presence
means the person is in serious medical condition.
 Breathalyzers now use an infrared light absorption device
with a digital read-out. Prints out a card for a permanent
record.
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Chapter 6
 Forensics 4/2/13

 Don’t forget to bring your textbook

Wednesday/Thursday so that you can work on
your CH 6 questions and prepare for your
midterm Friday!

 Midterm Friday: Primarily on CH 6 with

questions from CH 5 (drugs) and CH 8 (blood)
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Chapter 6
A man of 185 lbs drinks three shots (1.5 oz/shot)
of Jack Daniels 80 proof (40%) in an hour.

1. What is his BAC?

2. Is it ok for him to drive home? Explain
3. What is the BAC if the above person is a
woman?
4. Why the difference from male to female for
BAC?

Chapter 6
 Rank from most to least intoxicated and
explain your reasoning.

John 200lb had eight 8oz drinks on a full

stomach.
Frank 170 lb had four 8oz drinks on an empty
stomach
Gary 240 lb had six 8oz drinks on an empty
stomach
Stephan 180 lb had six 8oz drinks on a full stomach

Chapter 6
 Blood Samples

 Clean injection site with non-alcohol astringent

 Need preservative and refrigeration
 Over time alcohol breaks down

Chapter 6
 Blood Samples

 Forensic Laboratories use gas chromatography

to determine blood-alcohol content
Compare alcohol peaks with KNOWN blood-
alcohol standards

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 Hair samples

 The only viable option if it is necessary to

ascertain whether a subject has been abusing a
drug over a longer period of time

( drugs remain in blood stream for 24 hours and

in urine for up to 72 hours)

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Chapter 6
 Hair Samples

 Hair is nourished by blood flowing close to the

hair root
 Drugs present in blood become permanently
trapped in hair’s protein structure
 Can date the presence of drugs dating back
over a period of weeks, months and sometimes
years
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 Case Study

 Read the case study: Joann Curly: Caught by

hair
 Answer the following questions as a group:
1. If Bobby’s urine showed high levels of thallium in his
body, does this indicate recent or distant exposure?
2. How did investigators determine that Bobby wasn’t
exposed to the poison at work?

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Chapter 6
 Match the organization to the concerns
Organizations
1) FDA 2) EPA 3) Consumer Product Safety
Commission 4) DOT 5) OSHA
Concerns
a. Toxins in consumer products
b. Exposure to chemicals in the work place
c. Agricultural and industrial chemicals
d. Pharmaceuticals, food additives and medical devices
e. Shipment of toxic chemicals
Chapter 6
 More Information on alcohol

 http://www.intox.com/t-AboutAlcohol.aspx
 http://www.intox.com/t-Physiology.aspx

Chapter 6
 People in the News
John Trestrail is a practicing toxicologist
who has consulted on many criminal
poisoning cases. He is the founder of the
Center for the Study of Criminal Poisoning
in Grand Rapids, Michigan which has
established an international database to
receive and analyze reports of homicidal
poisonings from around the world. He is
also the director of DeVos Children’s
Hospital Regional Poison Center. In
addition, he wrote the book, Criminal
Poisoning, used as a reference by law
enforcement, forensic scientists and
lawyers.

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Chapter 6
 More Information

Read more about Forensic Toxicology from

Court TV’s Crime Library at:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensic
s/toxicology/2.html

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Chapter 6