Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE APRIL 1999 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY ARSINE GAS -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a middle aged man today. What has happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this middle aged man is Radhey. He used to work in a factory, where they used to make soldering flux. He was working in his factory five days ago, when at about 2 pm, suddenly he started having nausea, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. He had taken lunch only a few minutes before so naturally everybody started thinking that he had had food poisoning. His illness soon became worse. He started complaining of intense headache and pain in the loins. He passed urine after sometime, and everybody was alarmed to see that it was very dark. He was taken to the hospital, where the doctors were unable to diagnose his illness. However the history of having taken his meals only a few minutes before, and the non-specific symptoms prompted some doctor to write "undiagnosed poisoning" on the hospital case sheet." "So it was a case of poisoning? Was somebody else was poisoned too?" "No, nobody else was poisoned - of course presuming that Radhey died of poisoning. Only Radhey showed these peculiar symptoms. The tentative diagnosis of "undiagnosed poisoning" flared up everybody's tempers, especially those of Radhey's relatives. They thought that somebody had surreptitiously mixed poison in his food. And all suspicion fell on another man Suleiman." "Why on Suleiman doctor?" "Because and Radhey apparently did not have good relations. They did not even talk to each other. Nobody knows how their fight started, but it is for sure, that they were sworn enemies. After Radhey was taken to the hospital, the doctors tried their level best to save him, but they could not, and he died today morning after an illness of about four and half days. The doctors refused to give a death certificate, as they did not know the illness Radhey was suffering from. Meanwhile the relatives of Radhey actually lodged an FIR in the police station, in which they alleged that Suleiman had poisoned Radhey, and he should immediately be taken in custody. Apparently the relatives of Radhey had some political clout too, so the police had to act fast. Now they have sent this body to me. My job obviously is to find out how Radhey actually died." "Very interesting indeed. That explains the big mob outside your mortuary. When I came to meet you, I was surprised to see several people sorrounding this mortuary several of whom were toting cellulars." "Yeah, they are very influential people, and apparently they would leave the mortuary only after they have come to know of the cause of Radhey's death. The pressure on police was so much that they had to arrest Suleiman." "What does Suleiman say doctor?" "I have talked to Suleiman myself. The police has also talked to him. He says he has absolutley no hand in this killing. He has hired a lawyer for his defense and he is pressurizing the police by saying that they can not arrest his client without any solid evidence. So the police are finding themselves in a Catch-22 situation. As you can understand, I have been showered upon with a very heavy responsibility." "Yes indeed. I can understand that. Now where do you start from?" "Tarun, I have already started actually. Whenever a death occurs in a factory, I make it a point to visit the factory first and see what kind of activities were going there. I found that Radhey was involved in making soldering flux by putting zinc scrap in hydrochloric acid." "Please explain this to me in some great detail doctor." "Tarun, in several industries there is a "rough and ready" practice of producing zinc chloride to provide a soldering flux by putting zinc scrap in hydrochloric acid. This is actually not recommended as sometimes a very poisonous gas arsine may form in this process. The zinc scrap may contain arsenic as an impurity, and when arsenic acts with hydrochloric acid, it forms arsine (AsH3) a very dangerous gas." "So you think Radhey died of arsine gas?" "I can't say for sure at present, but after you know more about this interesting gas, you can make a guess yourself." "Looks like we are on the trail of yet another interesting poison. Doctor please tell me more about arsine gas." "Tarun, arsine is a very toxic gas, a molecule of which contains just four atoms - three of hydrogen and one of arsenic. It is a colorless inflammable gas. It is supposed to have an odour of garlic, but it is not always apparent, especially when a person is suffering from common cold. It is an unstable compound which when exposed to light or moisture, decomposes to deposit arsenic. It is heavier than air, its vapour density being 2.68 times that of air. You might be surprised to know that the German chemist Gehlen died of accidental arsine poisoning in 1815." "Oh, I didn't know that." "Tarun, arsine is one of the most poisonous gases known. It can kill outright. Even brief exposure to moderate concentrations can cause serious illness. I will give you some figures which will tell you something about the killing power of this gas. The four most poisonous gases are carbon monoxide, phosgene, chlorine and arsine. Inhalation of carbon monoxide in concentrations of 1000 parts per million (ppm) for a few minutes can cause death. The equivalent figures for Chlorine and Phosgene are 400 ppm and 50 ppm respectively, meaning thereby that they are more poisonous. Obviously the lesser concentration required for killing, more poisonous the gas. You would be surprised to know that in the case of arsine, only a concentration of 10 ppm inhaled for about half an hour could be dangerous. And at such low concentrations, the pecualiar garlic odor of the gas may not be apparent at all. The safe maximum concentration of carbon monoxide - generally considered by all to be very toxic - is 100 ppm, while that of arsine is just 0.05 ppm. This can give you some idea of the lethality of this gas" "Oh, sure. From the figures it appears to be about 2000 times more poisonous, which is remarkable. Especially considering the fact that everybody considers carbon monoxide to be a very deadly gas." "Exactly. Like carbon monoxide, arsine is a cumulative poison too. This means that it is excreted much more slowly from the body than it is absorbed. This results in gradual accumulation of the poison in the body which can be very dangerous. A good simily is of a tank, in which poisonous water is entering much faster than it is being let out. This would ultimately result in overloading of the tank with the poisonous water." "Yes, I understand. But what is the significance of a cumulative poison doctor?" "Tarun, it means that repeated or prolonged exposure to even a very low concentration can be dangerous. Thus a cumulative poison - that whose excretion rate is slower than that of its absorption- is a much more dangerous poison, than a non-cumulative poison. The hazard of arsine gas exists in a number of industries including the refining of metal, the manufacture of corrosive acids, galvanizing and electroplating. It is also a risk in laboratories. There was a time when the use of wall papers colored with pigment which contained Scheele's Green, yielded arsine in the home, when acted upon by a mould. This could create severe poisoning in the inmates, especially considering that arsine is a cumulative poison." "Just a minute doctor. What is Scheele's Green?" "Tarun, Scheele's Green is a popular name for cupric arsenite. Its formula is Cu3(AsO3)2.2H2O. It is named thus in the memory of the famous Swedish Chemist Kark Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786). It is a brilliant green pigment which was once used for paints, but since it is a potentially poisonous compound, it is no more used now. When mould acts on this compound, arsenic may get combined with hydrogen molecules and may form arsine, which may be very poisonous. Arsine may be produced in quite a few other remarkable ways." "What are those doctor? Please tell me." "Tarun, I know of a unique case of industrial poisoning by arsine in which three men were poisoned - one of them fatally. They were engaged in unloading fish scrap from the hold of a wooden schooner. The close, warm atmosphere promoted bacterial activity and, in turn, the production of arsine." "Oh that is indeed quite unusual." "Yes. Another likely source of arsine is the interior of tanks used in the preparation of sulphuric acid from iron pyrites (sulphide). Some of the deposits in these tanks was hard and had to be scraped from the walls. It contained upto 45% of arsenious oxide. The production of arsine from this material was unsuspected for quite some time. In yet another case, a person had cleaned a water jacket by pouring freshly diluted hydrochloric acid into its pipes. Fumes were liberated and he was in close contact with them in an unventilated room for about half an hour. The acid contained an "inhibitor", which proved to be a mixture of sodium arsenate and aniline hydrochloride. Arsine was produced from the inhibitor n the presence of nascent hydrogen and the man was severely poisoned." "Oh, I see. Arsine can be produced in most unusual circumstances. It does appear to me that Radhey too got involved in arsine poisoing." "Yes, it became apparent to me, when I came to know that he was involved in making the soldering flux by that precarious method, which I have described you just now. My suspicion was confirmed to a great extent when I heard that he had passed dark urine. This was because of the presence of hemoglobin in the urine." "Why should hemoglobin appear in the urine in a case of arsine poisoning?" "Arsine is a deadly poison tarun. It hemolyses (breaks) all the Red Blood Cells of the body. This liberates hemoglobin which ultimately finds its way in the urine which become dark. I have made some slides of the blood of this patient, and you can see under the microscope that all the R.B.C.s are broken. This is a very strong indication that he had died of arsine poisoning. Moreover his kidney tubules are blocked by these broken R.B.C.s which is another finding in favour of arsine poisoing. Coupled with his peculiar history, I am sure Radhey died of arsine poisoning, which is an accidental poisoning. Suleiman had nothing to do with it. Come, let us tell the police about it." "Very clever indeed. This was a most interesting discussion doctor. Without your masterly deduction, police could have unnecessarily went on harassing Suleiman. Radhey's relatives and other people might have thought, it was a case of killing by Suleiman. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about death by aflatoxins. "

| Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Contributing Partners Gyan Fernando Gyan Fernando, MB, BS, MD, FRCPath, DMJHome Office Pathologist Devon & Cornwall UK E-mail Dr. Fernando Dr. Gyan Fernando was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1949. His early education was in a Catholic school and in 1968 he entered the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ceylon, Colombo. Extra curricular activities, notably editing the student "rag" was more important to him than studies. This led to failing Anatomy and Biochemistry. He never failed another examination. However, he considers the five years spent in medical school to have been the best years of his life. In 1973, to the relief of his parents, he qualified as a doctor. Soon afterwards he got married to Ranji, a fellow medical student. He is still married to her. Because of living well away from their parents, the marriage survived the first few crucial years and a son was born in 1976. After a short spell in general medical and obstetric jobs he opted for Forensic Medicine purely because no one wanted the forensic job in a remote but beautiful part of the country where he wanted to live. In 1978 he moved to Britain where he soon discovered that training in Forensic Medicine did not exist. Wisely he decided on Histopathology and in 1984 obtained Membership of the Royal College of Pathologist by examination. (Later, "having furthered the interests of the College" without getting into trouble, he was made a Fellow.) In 1985 he obtained the Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence and was appointed the Senior Forensic Pathologist to the University of Dundee and very soon took over as caretaker head of department. In 1989 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Forensic Medicine, University of Edinburgh. At present he is the Home Office appointed Consultant Forensic Pathologist for Devon and Cornwall in which post he has been in since 1993. As a firm believer that "autopsy" means "seeing for oneself" and not gathering knowledge from books, he has always been a hands-on pathologist and has very little respect for academics. Another of his pet dislikes is bureaucracy. Over the years he has surrounded himself with books mostly of humorous and satirical writing, favourite authors being P.G.Woodhouse and James Thurber. He also has a fondness for cartoons. Since his school days he has been interested in railways and combines holiday travel with study of railways. Ramesh Kaul Ramesh Kaul, MD., MS., FCCP USA E-mail Dr. Kaul Dr. Ramesh Kaul was born and brought up in India, where he qualified in medicine and surgery from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Later he obtained his post-doctoral qualification in otorhinolaryngology from the same institute. A man of many interests and tastes, he is widely known among his peers as the modern Leonardo da Vinci. He is Board Certified in Pulmonary Medicine, and is currently working as a pulmonologist in the US. His several fields of interest include investigations into metabotropic receptors. He runs his own sites on lung cancer. Among his best known and widely respected sites are www.thorax.us and www.lungcancercare.com and www.rameshkaul.com . He lives in Pittsburgh and New Castle.

| Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Aims & Objectives Hi, I am Professor Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi-110002. I am married to a professor of chemistry and have a son (born 1984). I am interested in interacting with people who are interested in forensic medicine, pathology and toxicology. My home address is S-299 Greater Kailash-1, New Delhi-110048, India. My phone numbers are 29235460 and 29243101. My Email is dr_anil@hotmail.com I have always felt that forensic personnel are very creative. They write a lot, and often want to share their experiences with other persons of their profession. Sadly however only a limited number of journals are being published which solely cater to articles on forensic medicine and toxicology. A number of times, a little but useful experience of a forensic pathologist or toxicologist can not be converted into a valid paper, yet that experience could be very useful for the rest of us. A minor technique, a minor incision, which a forensic pathologist has discovered or found useful in his experience may not always be possible to be converted into a paper, yet could be very useful to the rest of us, if we had a means to know about that experience. For a long time, I had acutely felt the need for a forum, where such experiences could be shared. Internet provides a very good answer to the above problem. Now forensic personnel do not have to look anywhere to have their experiences, their statistical data and even proper full length papers (even with color photographs!) published. They can have them hosted here on the internet on this site. With the coming of the internet, I conceived the idea of an Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology to address these problems. Although mainly started with the above mentioned intentions, now the input of papers from all parts of the world has increased so much, that we are including proper full length papers too in this internet journal , even with color photographs. We have enough space on this website, and thus there are virtually no constraints. The paper could be lengthy (if the author feels his ideas can not be put across in shorter length), can have virtually unlimited number of photographs (which can be hosted in color!) and so on. This journal has only an electronic existence, and their is no corresponding journal on paper. In this respect, this journal probably has the honor of being the first of its kind in the world. This journal is being visited by several people daily, who not only read the papers, but add their own experiences related to the paper in the guest books maintained at the bottom of each paper. Thus with time, the experiences of several people on a given subject accumulate, and each one of us can benefit from the collected wisdom of all of us. Best of all, you can mention these papers in your CVs as they have the same validity as any other paper in a traditionally printed journal. These papers can be included as references by your peers in their own papers, monographs, chapters, books or encyclopaedias. To see how these papers can be sited, please visit any paper and see its reference at the top. If you have an interesting forensic paper (or experience), you may want to send it (and related photos if there are any) to me both by E-mail and by ordinary snail mail. Please scan the pictures at 300 dpi. Don't worry if you are uncomfortable at scanning pictures. Simply send the pictures to me by ordinary mail, and I will scan them for you. For ordinary mail, please use the following address. Professor Anil Aggrawal (Editor-in-Chief) Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology S-299 Greater Kailash-1 New Delhi-110048 India Books for review must be submitted at the above address. The journal is now also available on CD-ROM, with many more additional features.

Forensic Toxicology THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE JUNE 1998 ISSUE THE POISON SLEUTHS DEATH BY SELENIUM -Dr. Anil Aggrawal "Good morning doctor. Oh, my God, what are you doing today? You have the dead body of a young boy today. And his mouth is smelling as if he had eaten garlic before his death. What happened to him? Please tell me." "Good morning Tarun. The name of this young boy is Shyam and he is about 3 years old. His father is an old military hand, and a lover of guns. He was the only child of the family. His mother is a housewife. Yesterday his parents left home to visit one of their relatives, leaving the child with the maid, a young woman named Anita. The maid knew the child well, and Shyam was quite comfortable with her. It appears that for some time, the maid went to the bathroom. At least that is what the maid's version is. When she came back, she saw the child rolling on the ground, retching and vomiting. She immediately telephoned the parents. They rushed to the house and took Shyam to the hospital. When seen in hospital, he was moaning and making purposeless movements with his limbs. Salivation was profuse and he had a strong smell of garlic in his breath- as you have rightly observed now also. Doctors were trying to diagnose what his illness was, but within 45 minutes of his arrival at the hospital, he died." "Oh, that is most terrible. So the police must have now handed over his dead body to you to find out how he actually died?" "Yeah, that's true. Anita is actually a decent woman, and wouldn't do any mischief. But the child's parents are obviously in a very terrible grief, and wouldn't like to spare anyone. The police wouldn't want to spare anyone either in this heinous death. So Anita is not totally out of suspicion. And I have to tell the police how he actually died." "So what have you found out doctor?" "Tarun, when I found the strong smell of garlic from the boy's breath, immediately a bell rang in my mind. I asked the parents if they used garlic at home, and they replied in the negative. This set me thinking......" "Really? So the boy had not eaten any garlic. But I can swear he has eaten garlic. He is smelling so bad of garlic." "Yeah, that's right Tarun. But I must tell you that there are a few poisons which when ingested give rise to almost the same smell. These are selenium, phosphorus, arsenic, tellurium and dimethyl sulfoxide." "Oh, so the boy must have been given either of these poisons?" "Well, let us not jump to conclusions Tarun. These are the possibilities, but certainly the boy might have died of some other cause too. For instance he might have died of some natural illness. But I have enquired the parents if he ever suffered from some major illness, and they have answered in the negative. Then I looked at the body for some obvious injury marks. They are also not present. So it does appear to me that he died of some poison, and the poison is most likely to be one of those I already mentioned." "So how are you going to find out how Shyam actually died?" "Tarun, when I was making enquiries from the parents, I came to know that Shyam's father was a lover of guns. This immediately alerted my mind in one particular direction. Most gun lovers keep a special compound with them; it is called gun-bluing compound. It is actually selenious acid or hydrogen selenide. When rubbed on the guns, it gives them a beautiful metallic sheen. It seemed very probable to me that Shyam had accidentally ingested the gun bluing compound, especially when we take into account that his breath was smelling of garlic. I asked his father if he owned gun-bluing compound, and he was quite surprised how I actually came to know about it. I told him that it was just a hunch. He told me that he did own a bottle of this compound. I asked him to check the bottle. He used to keep the bottle in an open Almirah. When he checked the bottle, he found it open and it was partly empty. He thought that may be he had accidentally spilled the contents over........." "Oh, great. So just by making one or two nice observations you could diagnose the cause of death. But of course the court will require more rigorous proof. Before we go on to that, would you please tell me something about selenium doctor? It is beginning to appear to be such an interesting substance to me." "Oh sure Tarun. Selenium is a nonmetallic element closely related to sulphur. It is found commercially in steel and copper alloys and metal bluing solution as we have seen just now. It is also used for making stained glass, ink and even cosmetics. A suspension of selenium disulphide has been used as a shampoo in the treatment of seborrhoea, which is a kind of skin disease. It is still used, in a 2.5% aqueous solution of selenium sulphide, as a shampoo for the treatment of dandruff!" "Really. I do use a shampoo for dandruff. So does it contain selenium?" "I don't know. It may. You must check its contents which must be written on its wrapper. In any case selenium is not absorbed through unbroken skin, so if you use an anti-dandruff shampoo you are quite well off, if your scalp is not abraded. But if it is, the selenium may get absorbed. If absorbed, it may cause motor neurone disease, which is a kind of neurological disorder. Furthermore if someone accidentally ingests such a shampoo, he may be in trouble." "Alright. The first thing I will do today, is to check the contents of my shampoo. How else does selenium occur?" "Naturally it occurs in the surface soil in certain areas, and is readily absorbed by plants, including grain and vegetables growing in these areas. Herbivorous animals feeding on these plants may accidentally get poisoned by selenium. Endemic poisoning of herbivorous animals and in hens was first described under the name "alkali disease". It could have been the cause of "blind staggers" in cattle in South Dakota where the selenium content of the soil is high." "What is "blind staggers" doctor? Please tell me." "Tarun, it is a disease of cattle in which they show impaird gait and vision- hence the term "blind staggers". In addition, the animals show wasting, stomach upsets, liver damage, bizarre growth, loss of hair and hooves and sometimes sterility. South Dakota is a state in the US, where the soil is excessively rich in selenium. So naturally this selenium is taken by plants and grass too. Animals who fed on this vegetation showed signs of selenium poisoning. And this disease was given the name "blind staggers. Extensive studies have shown that similar symptoms may occur in man, and as grain and vegetables may be conveyed considerable distances these symptoms may occur well outside the recognized endemic areas." "What are the endemic areas" "By this term, I mean those areas where the soil is known to contain high amounts of selenium. There are some very interesting facts connected with selenium. For instance in 1901, it was suggested by some scientists, that some of the toxic manifestations attributed to arsenic in beer were in fact due to the presence of selenium in addition to arsenic." "Well, this point is not very clear to me." "Tarun, beer generally contains some arsenic. And heavy beer drinkers may show some signs of arsenic poisoning too. These scientists suggested that beer may contain selenium in addition to arsenic, and the toxic symptoms may be due to that too. In fact when the Government made a Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning, one of these scientists actually gave evidence that such a thing was possible" "Doctor, are all selenium compounds poisonous?" "Yeah, almost all. Many selenium compounds are very irritating or even corrosive to the skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract. Many selenium compounds were formerly used as plant insecticides, but they have been abandoned now because of their toxicity to man. Selenium oxychloride destroys skin on contact. Selenious acid or hydrogen selenide about which we have just talked, is very caustic when ingested. Fatalities from accidental ingestion of gun bluing agents are however possible. One of the reasons for this is that hydrogen selenide is colorless and odorless, so children may accidentally take it." "But just now you said that hydrogen selenide has garlicky odor. In fact, the child is smelling so bad of garlic, and that actually put you on trail of arsenic" "Tarun, I never said hydrogen selenide is garlicky in odor. I only said that in selenium poisoning one has garlicky odor. Let me tell you how these two statements are compatible. Garlicky odor is actually due to the excretion of dimethyl selenide in the breath. In the body, various selenium compounds can actually get converted to this compound to give rise to garlicky odor. So although selenious acid is odorless in itself, it can give rise to garlicky breath. I may tell you that the garlicky breath of selenium poisoning is so characteristic, that even its discovery itself is attributed to it." "Really? How? Tell me. I like listening to interesting true science stories." "It is said that the housekeeper of the house where Berzelius (the Swedish chemist who discovered Selenium) lived, complained that he had eaten too much garlic. But it was due to his having examined a selenium deposit in a sulphuric acid chamber. He had inhaled fumes which were probably those of dimethyl selenide. This set Berzelium thinking and he went on to discover selenium" "Oh, that is indeed very interesting doctor. Now tell me in how many different ways selenium toxicity can be produced?" "Tarun, toxicity can be produced in a number of ways. One of the ways of course is the direct ingestion of selenium either suicidally, homicidally or accidentally. However, no case of homicidal selenium toxicity has however been reported till now in literature, but it is certainly possible, especially as some of its compounds such as arsenious acid are colorless and odorless. But of course arsenious acid is very corrosive and when one is given this poison mixed in some liquid, he would at once come to know about it, from the corrosive action in his mouth. It is like having drunk dilute hydrochloric acid which also is colorless but very corrosive. Selenium poisoning is also recognized as an industrial hazard in the metal refining, glass making, electrical and chemical industries. And as we have seen, sportsmen and military people who keep shotguns in their homes may also keep gun-bluing compound, which is selenious acid, which can also cause accidental poisoning. Since it is a colorless and odorless fluid, it must be kept out of reach of children. Recently there has been some evidence that selenium is a naturally occurring antioxidant in the body and may be anticarcinogenic. Because of these suggestive findings selenium in various forms is being consumed in megadoses as a dietary supplement. The Centres for Disease Control (CDC), in USA reported 12 persons with nausea, vomiting, nail changes, fatigue and irritability from excessive selenium intake. About half of the patients experienced hair loss, and about one-third lost nails. Other symptoms included watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, dryness of hair, paresthesias (abnormal sensations) and garlic breath odor." "Doctor, can you tell me how selenium actually causes the death of a person?" "Tarun, there are certain enzymes within our body which contain sulfhydryl groups, i.e. -SH groups. These enzymes are very necessary for cellular respiration. Selenium bonds sulfhydryl enzymes and causes poisoning. I may tell you that arsenic also does the same, and is thus an equally deadly poison. Other compounds of selenium besides selenious acid are dangerous too. For instance, as sodium selenate, selenium is highly toxic. Acute selenium poisoning produces primarily central nervous system effects, including convulsions. The initial symptoms are nausea, vomiting and a metallic taste in the mouth, dizziness and extreme lassitude. Garlicky odor of the breath and sweat is very characteristic. In industrial situations, a worker may slowly absorb selenium in his system. He will then be said to have been suffering from Chronic selenium poisoning or chronic selenosis. It is manifested by garlic breath odor, stomach and intestine distress, upper airway irritation, metallic taste in mouth and inability to smell. The odor of garlic is perhaps the most characteristic feature. I may tell you that more than half the absorbed selenium is excreted in urine, the remainder in the faeces and in the breath as I have already told you. In endemic areas, urinary excretion of selenium may be as high as 200 micrograms/100 ml without obvious symptoms, while in industry symptoms have been noted with as little as 5-13 micrograms/100 ml." "Doctor, how much selenium can actually kill a person?" "Nobody knows for sure Tarun. But from the various poisoning cases that have come to light, doctors are of the opinion that the fatal dose is about 4 mg/kg body weight. That is, if a person weighs 60 kg, about 240 mg of a selenium compound would be enough to kill him. This, as you can see is quite a low dose, and this makes selenium a very dangerous poison. Its fatal period is about half to one hour. This means that after ingestion, a person would usually die within this period." "Oh, now I know so much about selenium. Now I am ready to listen to you, how you are actually going to prove in the court that the child did die of selenium poisoning, and who killed him?" "Tarun, we have already noted the garlicky odor which is a strong indicator towards selenium poisoning. Furthermore there is congestion (redness) and edema (swelling) of the gastric mucosa, the membrane which lines the stomach. The most important thing is that I have analysed Shyam's organs chemically, and have found high amounts of selenium in them. I have also chemically analysed the gun bluing fluid found at his house and it was found to contain 1.81% of selenious acid. I do not think Anita gave this poison to Shyam. She is an illiterate woman and does not know about the toxicity of gun-bluing compound. Moreover she had no motive to do so. Gun-bluing compound, as I told you earlier, can very easily be ingested accidentally as it is colorless and odorless, and doesn't alarm the person at all. It does appear to me, that when the maid was away, Shyam wandered towards his father's almirah, which was open. He looked at the bottle and was quite curious. Children like to put everything in their mouth, and in his naturally curiosity, he drank some of the liquid, which was responsible for all his symptoms. Well these are my observations only, and it is for the court to decide what actually happened. I can only tell the court with certainly that the child did die of selenium poisoning, and most probably Anita is not guilty." "Oh, how very clever of you doctor. This was a most interesting discussion. Tell me what are you going to tell me the next time?" "Tarun, next time, I would tell you about a very interesting poison- DNOC."

Explore the intersection of coding and forensic science. Dr. Anil Aggrawal’s Forensic Programming page features tools, scripts, and insights that help automate forensic workflows and empower tech-savvy investigators. Tarun and Anil Aggrawal's Forensic Programming Page Hi, I am Anil Aggrawal, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. I am a lover of information and knowledge. "Knowledge is power", said Thomas Hobbes. It appears if he hadn't said it, I would have. Forensic Medicine is just one of the several subjects I love. Of course it occupies my main attention because it is my profession. I have always felt forensic professionals are very creative people. They have always wanted to do new things. Over the years they have been asking me over and over again, how they can make their own forensic pages. I made my first page, sometime in 1996, and have mostly been self-taught, through books, other web pages, discussions with friends and the like. But never in my life have I taken regular classes from a professional programmer. Lately a brilliant teacher has come in my life - my son Tarun. My Family You may want to skip this sub-heading. I wrote it mainly to please myself! But if you are curious about what these pictures are doing in a page on forensic programming, you may want to read on. I did not find these pictures abnormal at all, till Tarun asked me this question. I felt then, that this question needed to be addressed. A bit about my family first, without whose active support, these pages would not have been possible at all. The top row shows me and my wife Marygold just after marriage - sometime around 25 March 1983 (I got married on 16 March 1983). This picture was taken during our honeymoon in Mussourie and Dehradoon. The second picture was taken almost 19 years later - on 25 December 2001, when we visited our brother-in-law Sanjay Gupta in California. Among other things, it shows the inexorable stamp of time. The bottom row shows my son Tarun. He was born on 20 December 1984. The first picture was taken sometime in 1988, during our visit to Kausani, a lovely hill station in North India (it is now known mainly because the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi visited it once and praised this place). The second during 1996 during my visit to USA as a WHO fellow. He is trying threading his hand through the vertebra of a whale in a Washington D.C. Aquarium. Over the years he has grown into an intelligent and loving child. He is the one who is responsible for whatever I know about programming. But why the pictures? These show the two people I love most in my life (besides my mother, my two brothers and their families of course!). And it was mainly because of these two people that I could do whatever little I have been able to. If I could explore new vistas of knowledge, it was because my wife looked after me with great loving care. While she was looking after all my personal worries, I was busy learning new things. My child taught me programming like a great teacher. Hence their pictures. I would have known no programming at all without these two people in my life. Why these pages on Programming? Over the years forensic professionals from all over the world have asked me questions about the basics of computers and internet. They have asked how they could make their own web pages; how could they write their own programs to store and manipulate data (such as post-mortem data, clinical forensic medicine data and so on), and I have been answering them through Emails. Finally I decided I shall make a website which will say something about computers, internet and above all programming. No familiarity with programming is assumed from readers. They don't even have to know much about computers. The only thing they must have is a computer and the releveant program (say C++ compiler for C++, or Netscape or Internet Explorer for HTML). And they must know how to type! Programs can often be long, and it helps if you can type fast. No need to worry though if you don't know typing. Just copy and paste the programs in your compiler. Of course if you type out the program yourself, you learn faster. In this site, I hope to include simple lessons in HTML, DHTML, C++, Javascript, Perl, CGI, and whatever little I know of other programming languages. Are these pages relevant to Non-Forensic people too? Yes! Although these pages are meant specially for forensic professionals (I will be addressing their problems mainly), even non-forensic people can enjoy these pages. This is because the basic programming principles remain the same. I shall begin with C++, and then go on to other languages. You can go through lessons in order, test the various exercises in your computer and if there are any queries, you can always write Email to ask me. Books on Computers/Internet/Programming Although this site would initiate you into the world of computers, internet and programming, you can't learn everything there is to learn through these pages only. Very soon, you will begin to feel the need of proper books on these subjects. One of our main aims is to provide readers of these pages with information on latest books on computers, programming and internet in the form of book reviews. Readers may read the reviews of latest books and decide, which ones they would like to buy. A Lucrative Career in Forensic Programming Is there a career in Forensic Programming? Certainly. This specialty has skipped the attention of most professionals till now. But now more and more forensic and computer professionals are becoming aware of this specialty. To know more about careers in forensic programming and in other forensic fields, you may want to go to the forensic careers page. You may also want to go through the various books we keep suggesting on this site from time to time. It would help you get an insight into the world of computers, internet and programming, and you might be able to apply this knowledge to forensic fields effectively. From time to time, we also suggest other teaching aids such as multimedia, CDs, DVDs, Video and audio tapes. Look out for various announcements on these pages for these products. Enter Frequently asked questions What is Forensic Programming? Forensic Programming is the use of computer programming for the aid of police, judiciary and other law enforcement agencies. But how is this possible? That is indeed what we intend to discuss in these pages. It can not be explained in a sentence, but let me give you an illustrative example. Let us imagine that in a particular Forensic Medicine department, 1000 autopsies are conducted in a year. These would comprise a whole spectrum ranging from natural deaths to murders. If someone asked a pathologist of that department, how many, say, drowning cases had come to them in that particular year, he may not be able to tell you off hand, despite having been involved in ALL those cases. Finer statistics such as how many of them were homicidal in nature and so on, may be impossible to tell. But imagine what would happen if all this data had been cleverly programmed. At the touch of a button, one could tell not only the number of drowning deaths that year, but statistics such as homicidal, suicidal and accidental drownings, sex and age distribution, region of drowning, salt and fresh water drowning, time of the day when drowning occurred and so on. But how is it going to help law enforcement agencies? Suppose out of 1000 cases done by this hypothetical department, they dealt with, say, 91 cases of homicide. A good programming of this data would tell us, how many of these homicides were by gunshot, how many by sharp weapons and so on. This would also tell us the time of day/night when most homicides took place, the likely victims, the likely areas where homicides tend to occur and so on. Imagine how a police department can gear itself up, if it had all this data. They could, for instance, increase the patrolling in a particular area at a particular time, where most homicides occurred. Isn't it the same thing as Forensic computing or Computer Forensics? All of us are already aware of it. Forensic computing or Computer Forensics would involve using one's knowledge of computers - may be even programming - to track down criminals. A typical instance of this is a person who sent an Email to his cyberfriend asking her to meet at a particular place, and killed her after, say, sodomising her. An expert in forensic computing can examine the computer of the victim and from a thorough examination of the hard disk and data therein could perhaps track the man who was sending her Emails. Forensic programming is an entirely different thing. A forensic programmer DOES NOT track down a criminal at all. His sole purpose is to organize his data in a fashion so that it could be manipulated in a number of ways to give him useful information. Information, which could profitably be used by law enforcement agencies. Alright. Any more uses of forensic programming? We can think up a number of them. Let us talk about poisonings, or toxicological deaths. A good programming of our data can tell us how many poisoning cases are we dealing with, what are the most common poisons encountered, how many of them were homicidal, suicidal or accidental in nature. If, for example, we found that an alarmingly high number of deaths were occurring due to, say, accidental ingestion of corrosives, we might want to investigate why this is happening so. Or are these deaths indeed accidental in nature in the first place, or is there something more to it. Since when is forensic programming practiced? Who started it first? I am not sure. When I learnt programming, it occurred to me, we could use it in a clever way for our purposes. Which computer languages are most often used in forensic programming? Virtually any. But most often we would be using C++, Visual Basic, Java and so on. Does forensic programming make a good career option? Sure. It is the specialty of the future according to me. For more information, you may want to visit our forensic careers page.

Book Review Policy Reviews of Forensic Books/Journals/Software/Multimedia SPREADING AWARENESS The journal strives to spread awareness about the latest forensic literature among the forensic professionals of the world. Every month tens of new books related to forensic sciences and allied subjects are published, but it takes a while before forensic professionals become aware of them. In several cases, they just remain unaware of these publications throughout. I have been personally handicapped by several such instances. I will tell you just one. In 1998, I went to Bijapur (a historical city in Karnataka State in India), to take a guest lecture, and as is my wont, was thumbing through their library books in my spare time. I was amazed to see a nice biography of Thomas Noguchi published sometime in the late seventies. It gave some of his best cases (among them the murder of Dorothy Stratten, Playboy Playmate of August 1979, who was killed by her lover Paul Snider, when she was six months short of her twenty-first birthday. I had been searching for the details of this murder investigation for quite sometime without any success!). I was completely unaware of this book for all these years , and would have given a fortune to possess this book, but alas, the book was already out of print. What pained (and annoyed) me most was that I have been frantically buying books since late sixties, and had I been aware of the existence of this book at the time it was published, I would have done anything to acquire it - even if it would have entailed writing to the publishers overseas. As I pined for this book (and several others - "Pathology of Homicide" by Adelson is another, "Guinness Book of Crime", which I saw at the British Council Library in New Delhi another, "Poisons, Antidotes and Anecdotes" by William Tichy (Sterling Pub. Comp., New York, N.Y., 1977) still another - the list is endless), I became acutely aware that there should be some surefire and foolproof system by which forensic professionals could become aware of important publications soon after they came in existence. We have been running this very successful Internet Journal for quite sometime now. This has become a sine qua non for most professionals around the world (its beauty is that unlike most other online journals, it is available free online to all), and they turn back often to this journal to see what is the latest happening here. And we at the Journal office decided that it would be best to use this journal as a forum to spread awareness. We wrote to several authors and publishers and the response was amazing. We received books from them regularly and as they came in we got down to scanning them, sorting them, describing them. As can be seen, our reviews are radically different from those appearing in most "Paper journals". We give the front and back cover in high color resolution, and also some of the key diagrams, contents, tables etc in full color, which can be enlarged further at the command of the viewer. The idea is to make the reader feel as if he is himself thumbing through the book, and can take an intelligent decision regarding it. We also began reviewing other items related to forensic medicine (Software, Multimedia, Journals). With time, this section also became really valuable for our readers. Encouraged by the response to reviews of Professional Publications, software and multimedia, we took to reviews of popular books on crime too. Again we wrote to several authors and publishers and again the response was encouraging. I think if somebody had been running such a journal twenty years back, all of us would have had much more books in our collection than we have now (I Certainly would have had Thomas Noguchi's book!). But better late than never! (The journal accepts important books, journals, software and multimedia (VHS, CDs, DVDs) related to Forensic Science, Forensic Medicine, Toxicology, Criminology and Allied subjects for extensive reviews. Both technical and general books are reviewed in separate sections. The journal is visited not only by Forensic Professionals from all over the world, but also by general public exploring subjects related to mystery, crime, suspense, intrigue, supernatural and horror. The reviews are usually hosted within two weeks an item is received at the journal office. For more details please visit our FAQ section.) Books and other items for review must be submitted at the following address Professor Anil Aggrawal (Editor-in-Chief) Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology S-299 Greater Kailash-1 New Delhi-110048 India Phone:+91-11-29235460