TOXINS AND ALCOHOL

TOXICOLOGY

• Toxicology is the study of negative impacts a substance has in living things.
• Environmental toxicology is examining soil, air quality, and water for toxins.
• Primarily, environmental toxicology focuses on looking for pollution from industry.
• Consumer toxicology is the examination of consumer goods for toxins, illicit content, or diseases.
• Consumer poisoning may be based in the factory, shipping, or the store, and it may or may not be intentional.

TOXICOLOGY CONT.

• Medical toxicology is the examination of living bodies for substances.
• Forensic toxicology is the examination of bodies, living or dead, believed to have been the victims of crime.
• Medical toxicology primarily relies on tissue and blood for their investigations.
• Forensic toxicology is quicker and more accurate than medical toxicology.
• This is because the bodies, being dead, mean that easier ways of determining poisons can be used w/out pain.

FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY

• Postmortem toxicology is created by a medical examiner or a coroner.
• Criminal toxicology usually if for MVA's, suspected sustenance abuse, or poisonings. It is created by a doctor if living, or an ME.
• Workplace toxicology is for testing employees for sustenance presence, and is both beatable and less thorough
• Sports toxicology is testing of athletes or competition animals for things like steroids. Usually done by doctor.
• Environmental toxicology primarily tries to determine the source of pollution; be it industry, terrorism, or catastrophe.

TOXIC SUBATANCES

• The presence of toxic substances is typically indicated by several factors.
• They may cause death, like ricin.
• They may contribute to death, like how lead poisoning can worsen epileptic seizures.
• They may cause impairment such as blindness, deafness, seizure, brain damage, etc.
• Finally, they may cause changes in behavior, like pot smoker munchies, roid rage, etc.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT

• While poison may feel like a modern innovation, it can be found throughout history.
• Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, who poisoned and assassinated her way to his throne.
• Locusta, the personal poisoner of Emperor Nero of Rome, given a villa and pupils in exchange for the poisoning of Brittanicus.
• Lucretia Borgia; suspected of myriad inappropriate acts for a Pope's daughter, including poisoning of enemies at family parties.
• Madame Giulia Toffana, inventor of the famous poison Aqua Tofana, her poison killed 600, including 2 popes.

HISTORICAL PRECEDENT CONT.

• Hieronyma Spara, who formed a society to teach women how to murder their husbands
• Madame de Brinvilliers and Catherine Deshayes, French poisoners caught up in the Poison Affair.
• Thousands of others, including William Pritchard, Henry Lawson, etc.
• Poison is one of the oldest, most practical, widely used methods of murder in the world.

Mathieu Orfila—known as the father of forensic toxicology, he published in 1814 "Traité des Poisons" which described the first systematic approach to the study of the chemistry and physiological nature of poisons. Basically, he helped invent toxicology. Marie LaFarge was the first person convicted because of his work.

TOXICITY

• Toxicity is the measure of how deadly a poison or toxin is to the recipient.
• Usually it is determined by the following factors;
• Weight, dosage, chemical or physical form of the substance, mode of entry into the body,
• Age, sex, weight, physiological conditions, period of exposure, and finally, synergism.

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

FEDERAL REGULATORY INATITUTIONS

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Consumer Product Safety Commission
• Department of Transportation (DOT)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

PROVING A CASE

• You need;
• Motive
• Intent
• Death was a homicide caused by poison

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