Introduction to Forensic Toxicology

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Introduction to Forensic Toxicology
PowerPoint Presentation by Krystal Ronquillo
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Timeline of Forensic Toxicology
From crimezzz.net
1775_Karl Wilhelm SCHEELE (1742-1786) discovers
that he could change arsenious oxide to arsenious
acid, which in contact with zinc produces arsine.
This discovery later plays a great part in the
forensic detection of arsenic.
1829_Sir Robert CHRISTISON (1797-1882), Professor
of Forensic Medicine at Edinburgh publishes
"Treatise on Poisons", which for many years is
regarded as the standard work on toxicology in
the English language.
1813_Mathieu Bonaventure ORFILA (1787-1853),
professor of medicinal and forensic chemistry at
Univ. of Paris, publishes Traite des Poisons.
Considered the father of modern toxicology.
Significant contributions to development of tests
for the presence of blood in a forensic context.
Credited as the first to attempt the use of a
microscope in the assessment of blood and semen
stains.
1836_English chemist James MARSH (1794-1846)
developes a test for the presence of arsenic in
tissues. The "Marsh Test" is very sensitive,
detecting as little as 0.02 mg As.
Continued. . .
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1840_Charles LAFARGE, on a business trip in
Paris, falls ill after eating a cake sent to him
by his wife. Back home, he dies on January 13,
1840. His young wife Marie, widow a second time
already is arrested after arsenic is found in her
husbands stomach. Yet the Marsh Test proved
negative. An exhumation was ordered Mathieu
Bonaventure ORFILA (1787-1853), meantime Dean of
the Paris medical faculty is summoned by the
court in the LAFARGE case. He applies the Marsh
Test correctly and finds arsenic in the corpse.
Marie LAFARGE is sentenced to life imprisonment.
After serving 10 years she is released by
Napoleon III in 1850 and dies 1851, still
declaring her innocence.
1852_Jean Servais STAS, a chemistry professor
from Brussels, and student of ORFILA, is the
first successfully to identify vegetable poisons
in body tissue. In a murder trial in 1850, the
male victim shows clear chemical burns in his
mouth, tongue, and throat. STAS searched for
three months for the agent, and eventually
manages to isolate nicotine from the body
tissues. Using ether as a solvent, which he then
evaporates to isolate the drug, he finds the
potent drug. It was, in fact, the murder weapon.
The man's killer had extracted it from tobacco
and force-fed it to the victim. With STAS's
testimony, the killer is convicted.
1956_GOLAY first shows WCOT (wall-coated open
tubular) columns for Gas Chromatography to be
theoretically ideal.
1988_LEWELLEN, McCURDY, HORTON, and ASSELIN,
LESLIE, McKINLEY publish milestone papers
introducing a novel procedure for the analysis of
drugs in whole blood by homogeneous enzyme
immunoassay (EMIT).
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The Black Widow of London Toxicology Case File
-Between 1929 and 1949, Marie Besnard was said to
have killed 12 people, including her husband and
mother, with arsenic.
-Toxicologist Dr. Georges Beroud was deemed
careless in his lab techniques, which prompted a
second investigation. This one was also
insubstantialtheory suggests that through
anaerobic bacteria arsenic could enter the hair
of a corpse from the ground. Investigators now
had to prove arsenic was not introduced to the
bodies after initial burial.
-All said victims bodies were exhumed and
tested. Every body tested positive for high
levels of arsenic.
-Since this test was the only evidence
prosecutors had against Besnard, a number of
problems in the case arose.
-Although the second investigation also revealed
signs of arsenic in the bodies, a mistake on the
part of Dr. Griffon. The hair samples required
exposure to radioactivity for more than 20 hours,
but investigators only exposed it for 15. The
results came under question again and a third
time. Unable to completely prove anything,
Besnard was acquitted on December 12, 1961
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-Toxicology is defined as the study of the
adverse effects of toxins on any and all living
organisms. When dealing in forensic toxicology
the study delves into the application of this
into solving a crime.
Toxin
Symptom
-Toxins are any substances that can be harmful to
living organisms. They come in a number of forms
(gaseous, liquid, solid, animal, mineral, and
vegetable)
-Poisons are a subgroup of these toxins.
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Urine Testing The Most Commonly Used Drug Test
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Urine Testing
-Are the least expensive of the test methods
(7-50 for home version). Are considered an
intrusive method of testing. -Can be done at
home (for example by parents) though require lab
verification for accurate results. -Detect use
primarily within the past week (longer with
regular use). -Can be affected by abstaining
from use for a period of time before the test.
-Are often temperature tested to insure sample
integrity.
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Saliva Multi Drug Test 5 tests for
opiates/morphine (such as heroin), marijuana,
cocaine/crack, methamphetamine benzo. Detection
in saliva tests begins immediately upon use
Marijuana and Hashish (THC) 1 hour after
ingestion, for up to 14 hours Cocaine (including
crack) From time of ingestion for 48 to 72
hours Opiates From time of ingestion for 48 to
72 hours Methamphetamine and Ecstasy (MDMA,
"Crank," "Ice") From time of ingestion for 48 to
72 hours BZD From time of ingestion for 48 to 72
hours The test is based upon the new immunoassay
technology for assuring the best accuracy. This
means that you get the results in 10-15 minutes
in the privacy of your home. Each test kit is
packaged individually in a sterile bag.
Saliva Testing
An actual product on the marketat home saliva
drug test. Although scientifically sound, the
test is second rate to other more used drug
tests.
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Hair Analysis
A new wave in drug testing. A breakthrough in
the forensic science field.
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With so many loopholes in urine testing and other
drug tests, hair analysis has become the most
efficient and widely used form of drug testing in
the work place and at home.
Steelcase administered both urine and
Psychemedics' hair analysis tests to 774
applicants in order to provide an effective
side-by-side comparison. The graph to the right
indicates the percentage rate of positive drug
tests as compared between urine tests and drug
analysis. The significant differences in
percentages indicatesa greater success rate in
hair testing
According to Psychmedics 1. For all drugs tested,
Psychemedics hair test was substantially more
effective in identifying drug use, yielding an
18.0 positive rate in comparison to a rate of
2.7 for urine. 2. Because of the rapid
excretion of cocaine in urine, Psychemedics was
overwhelmingly more effective than urinalysis in
identifying cocaine users. Sixteen times as many
cocaine users were accurately identified using
Psychemedics' patented technology
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If Steelcase were to rely on urinalysis to screen
applicants for every 100 employees hired,
approximately 15 would be drug users. The
National Institute of Health estimates that each
drug abuser costs an employer approximately
7,000 annually. Therefore, a company like
Steelcase would save 105,000 per year for every
100 employees hired by pre-screening applicants
with Psychemedics' hair analysis test.
  STEELCASE CORPORATION COST PER POSITIVE TEST
RESULT URINE VS. HAIR A further example of
Psychemedics' cost effectiveness If Steelcase
had paid 50 per test using Psychemedics' hair
testing and 30 per test for urine testing, the
cost per positive for Steelcase would still be
over 800 LESS using Psychemedics' technology.
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To the left is a Cocaine (COC) Drug Testa
simple one step rapid immunochromatographic assay
for a quick, qualitative detection of cocaine and
benzoylecgonine (which has a longer biological
half-life (5-8 hours) than cocaine (0.5-1.5
hours) and can usually be detected for 24-80
hours after cocaine use or exposure) as
metabolites in urine.
Most interesting about both tests is that
although they primarily are simple and
inexpensive, they require hair chormatography or
mass spectometry testing before a positive
determination is made
Similarly to the right is the THC orMarijuana
drug test. This test is based on the principle of
the highly specific immunochemical reactions
between antigens and antibodies, which are used
for the analysis of specific substances in
biological fluids, in this case urine.
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Hair Chromatography testing as used in the work
place will commonly find the following drugs. The
molecules of some are shown below.
Amphetamines (methamphetamines and
amphetamines) Cocaine Opiates (heroin,
morphine, and codeine) Phencyclidine (PCP)
Marijuana (THC)
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Hair analysis at APL Laboratories is performed by
mirroring the federal forensic Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) employment drug testing guidelines as
closely as possible for a solid sample. Urine, of
course, comes to us in liquid form. Hair must go
through additional extraction procedures in order
to release the drugs from the hair before
testing. From that point on, the tests are
performed almost identically to urine drug
testing.
1) The sample is received in the secured Specimen
Processing department to be verified for complete
chain of custody, adequate sample volume and
computer data entry. The sample is cut and
weighed. Once cut into very small pieces, the
sample is mixed to create as homogeneous a sample
as possible. An internal chain of custody is
created and a portion of the cutting of each
sample is sent to the laboratory for screening.
Procedure taken from APL Laboratories
Continued. . .
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2) The samples are washed, prepared and the drugs
are extracted into a liquid form. As with urine,
the screening process is performed by immunoassay
techniques. Those samples which test negative are
then reported as negative. If the screening
process produces a suspected positive, a request
is made from the laboratory to the specimen
processing department to provide a new sample
from the remainder of the original cuttings.
3) The second portion of the original cuttings is
then washed, prepared, extracted and subjected to
confirmation testing by either gas chromatography
mass spectrometry (GC/MS) or gas chromatography
mass spectrometry/ mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS).
If the confirmation test is negative or less than
the cutoff, the sample is reported as negative.
If the sample is positive the laboratory reports
the sample as positive.
4) The federal guidelines require a final stage
for urine -- certification review by qualified
certifying scientists. At APL Laboratories, the
certifiers also manually review all hair analysis
tests before results are issued.
Procedure taken from APL Laboratories
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The use of hair as a specimen to detect cocaine
use was first reported in 1981 (Arnold and
Püschel 1981 Valente et al. 1981). In those
studies, hair samples from suspected drug abusers
were analyzed by radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the
cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine (BZE) in an
attempt to verify a history of cocaine use. The
first gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
(GC/MS) procedures for detecting cocaine in hair
were not reported until 1987 (Balabanova and
Homoki 1987). When this more specific technique
was used, it was found that cocaine, not BZE, is
the primary analyte in hair. The metabolites BZE
and ecgonine methyl ester (EME), shown in figure
1, are present in such low and variable
concentrations that they may result from
environmental degradation of cocaine already
present in hair.
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ANALYSIS OF OPIATES IN HUMAN HAIR BY HIGH
PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY
An high-performance liquid chromatographic
method with ultraviolet detection has been
developed for the determination of the principal
opiates (heroin, monoacetylmorphine, morphine,
codeine) in human hair. An aliquot of 100 mg of
hair was treated with 2 ml HCL 0.1N at 56 C
overnight it was then extracted by solid-phase
extraction using Bond Elut Certify columns with
the procedure provided for the opiates.
Chromatography has been performed using a C18
reversed-phase column with a mobile phase
consisting of water-acetonitrile (7030 v/v)
containing 0.001 M NaH2PO4 and 0.002 M sodium
laurylsulphate at pH 2.1.
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