Poisoning is a common cause of death. Many people die accidentally from poisoning. Even though poison is not the common choice of weapon for homicide, it is not unheard of. According to statistics, poisoning only amounts to a handful of deaths in the total number of criminal homicides. However, most forensic experts disagree. It is believed by most forensic toxicologists that homicidal poisoning is a common mode of killing but one that is not easily detected which is why the statistics can be wrong.
In fact, death by poisoning is rarely ruled as a criminal homicide while most go as “undetermined”. The common reason for this is that clinical autopsies are done by pathologists who are not consciously looking for malicious intent. There are so many poisons that detecting one is almost unlikely unless there is a specific doubt. One of these poisons is Arsenic.
Arsenic is a readily available poison that does not have any taste. This makes it easy to be ingested into food and beverages without the victim knowing it. When arsenic is ingested, arsenic moves into the blood very quickly. It can be traced in hair, nails, and skin since it is through blood. In some time, traces of the poison also get settled into the bones.
The symptoms of arsenic poisoning are not vague and can be seen regularly. Some common signs of arsenic poisoning are:
While these are only signs of small doses of ingestion, larger doses can even lead to convulsions. This can make the victim go into shock in a few hours and die a painful death or lead to delayed demise due to kidney failure. Signs of slow arsenic poisoning are abdominal pain and severe hair loss.
Even though arsenic is detectable in autopsies, it takes a sense of direction to be able to do that. Unless there is a possibility or suspicion of a specific poison, the chances of discovery are almost none. Due to the symptoms, most of such cases are signed off as renal failure. In most slow poisoning cases, malpractice is rarely considered since kidney failure is a common problem and can happen due to various reasons.
This is also why it is a common mode of killing for individuals who are looking for undetectable poisons. In recent years, arsenic has become a weapon of choice for criminals due to its easy availability and undetectable taste. Homicidal poisoning cases that do not raise the usual flags of foul play are rarely investigated with formal intent, precisely why arsenic poisoning is one of the best methods for those who choose murder by poison.
How do Poisons or Toxins enter the body?
Conclusion
In simple words, arsenic is detectable in autopsies. However, unless there is suspicion of wrongdoing, most cases go unnoticed and are ruled out as death by natural or undetermined causes. To get more informative posts like this, follow The Carlson Company.
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James Marsh (2 September 1794 – 21 June 1846) was a British chemist who invented the Marsh test for detecting arsenic. Born in Kent, he was working as a labourer in Woolwich in the late 1810s and early 1820s, before joining the Royal Artillery.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › James_Marsh_(chemist)
test is a highly sensitive method in the detection of arsenic, especially useful in the field of forensic toxicology when arsenic was used as a poison.
The generally received opinion is, in relation to arsenic, that, if an individual poisoned by this substance survives for sixteen or eighteen days, and then dies, there will be little, if any, probability of detecting the poison in the liver after death.
Your body does not easily absorb fish arsenic and it leaves your body through the urine. The most reliable way to test for recent arsenic exposure is through a urine test. If you had a fish meal or ate fish supplements within a few days of having a urine test, the test may show a high level of arsenic.
Rigor mortis lasts longer than usual. Internally red velvet stomach, petechial hemorrhages under the endocardium of the left ventricle, patchy fatty degenerative changes with jaundice in liver, rain drop skin pigmentation and mee's line in nails findings seen in post-mortem.
What an autopsy report can't show. In general, an autopsy report cannot detail in what order a person's wounds were inflicted. The report will detail the number and location of wounds. Detectives can then use this information, along with other evidence that has been gathered, to infer how an incident unfolded.
Arsenic is very poisonous. Consumed in large amounts, it can cause death very quickly. Lethal doses resulting in death typically occur within one to four days of ingestion. Exposure in smaller amounts over a period of time can still cause serious complications.
Adding a sample of tissue or body fluid to a glass vessel with zinc and acid would produce arsine gas if arsenic was present, in addition to the hydrogen that would be produced regardless by the zinc reacting with the acid. Igniting this gas mixture would oxidize any arsine present into arsenic and water vapor.
This is because substances can be detected at autopsy even when they did not contribute to death (in both poisoning and nonpoisoning suicides). Substances more often detected in poisoning suicides can add further weight to evidence from case fatality studies.
The urine test is the most reliable test for arsenic exposure within the last few days. Urine testing needs to be done within 24–48 hours for an accurate analysis of an acute exposure. Tests on hair and fingernails can measure exposure to high levels of arsenic over the past 6–12 months.
The immediate symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning include vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. These are followed by numbness and tingling of the extremities, muscle cramping and death, in extreme cases.
The ability of arsenic to enable bodies both to resist decay and to decay in an unusual manner was first remarked upon by the medical inspector of Berlin, Dr Georg Adolph Welper, who made it his particular study.
Orfila adapted Marsh's method in the practice of forensic medicine, using it to detect arsenic in several poisoning trials, including the famous Mercier and Lafarge trials, in which he identified absorbed arsenic in the remains of long-buried corpses (4, 11).
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The principal aims of an autopsy are to determine the cause of death, mode of death, manner of death, the state of health of the person before he or she died, and whether any medical diagnosis and treatment before death were appropriate.
The criteria for diagnosis is made by identifying arsenic in the urine at concentration levels >50 µg/L. Only urine (24 hrs) and urine creatinine tests are valid for arsenic. Speciations for inorganic and organic arsenic is not required, but if available, use only inorganic arsenic level to determine arsenic poisoning.
The symptoms of arsenic poisoning can be acute, or severe and immediate, or chronic, where damage to health is experienced over a longer period. This will often depend on the method of exposure. A person who has swallowed arsenic may show signs and symptoms within 30 minutes.
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