A Fatal Case of Gas Intoxication in Silage Pit

Fatalities due to gas intoxication are rare in routine forensic casework. The most common gas is carbon monoxide, with other gases (ammonia, methane, propane and butane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide) encountered only very rarely. In this report, we describe the accidental death of two maintenanc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic sciences 2018-11, Vol.63 (6), p.1904-1907
Main Authors: Handlos, Petr, Gebauerová, Vladimíra, Tomková, Jana, Zielinski, Petr, Marecová, Klára
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
accidental death
Air Pollutants, Occupational - poisoning
Ammonia
Asphyxia
Asphyxia - etiology
Autopsies
Biogas
Carbon
Carbon dioxide
Carbon Dioxide - poisoning
Carbon monoxide
Carboxyhemoglobin - analysis
Chromatography
Collapse
drowning
Fatal Outcome
Flame ionization
Flame ionization detectors
Forensic pathology
forensic science
Gas chromatography
Gases
Humans
Hydrogen sulfide
Infrared analysis
infrared gas analyzer
Intoxication
Ionization
Ionization counters
Liquid chromatography
Male
Mass spectrometry
Silage
Silage - toxicity
silage pit
Spectrophotometry
Toxicology
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Summary:Fatalities due to gas intoxication are rare in routine forensic casework. The most common gas is carbon monoxide, with other gases (ammonia, methane, propane and butane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide) encountered only very rarely. In this report, we describe the accidental death of two maintenance workers who were found in the silage pit at a biogas plant. The autopsy revealed signs of asphyxia in both the deceased. Analysis of the gaseous mixtures in the tank using an infrared gas analyzer showed slightly elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide. Toxicological examination of the blood of both the deceased using gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector, spectrophotometry and liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry did not detect any toxicologically significant substance that would explain the sudden collapse. Both the autopsy and the toxicology analyses suggest CO2 intoxication as the most likely cause for the collapse of the two men, which then led to sudden asphyxia.
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/1556-4029.13791