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Published:
Journal of Analytical Toxicology,
ISSN 0146-4760,
Volume 30, Number 9, November/December 2006,
pp.697-702
CASE REPORT: Suicidal Inhalation of Motorbike Exhaust:
Adding New Data to the Literature about the Contribution of Gasoline in the
Cause of Death
María A. Martínez[1], and Salomé
Ballesteros[2]
[1]Chemistry Department and
[2]Spanish Poison Control Center, National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic
Sciences, Ministry of Justice, C/Luis Cabrera 9, 28002 Madrid, Spain
We would like to alert toxicologists to the importance of testing
for gasoline, and for volatile hydrocarbons in general, in deaths involving
inhalation of exhaust fumes occurring in closed spaces with running motors or
machinery. We present here a case of suicidal inhalation of motorbike exhaust,
a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and gasoline vapor, by a 38-year-old female.
She was found in her closed home garage with a hose extending from the exhaust
pipe of a motorbike through a cellophane plastic device into a closed tent in
which the victim lay. She left two suicide notes nearby. The carboxyhemoglobin
(COHb) was measured using visible spectrophotometry. The toxicological screening
and quantitation of gasoline was performed by means of gas chromatography with
flame-ionization detector and confirmation was performed using gas chromatography–mass
spectrometry. The %COHb determined in blood was 73%. Gasoline concentrations
in heart blood and vitreous humor were 22.3 and 1.0 mg/L, respectively. Although
fatalities with CO at this rate are common, we would like to highlight the role
of gasoline and add new quantitative data of this toxic substance to the scarce
literature. Based upon the toxicological data, along with the information provided
by the medical examiner, the cause of death was determined to be CO and gasoline
poisoning and the manner of death suicide.
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