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Published:
Journal of Analytical Toxicology,
ISSN 0146-4760,
Volume 30, Number 8, October 2006,
pp.638-642
CASE REPORT: A Motor Vehicle Accident Fatality Involving
the Inhalation of 1,1-Difluoroethane
Timothy Hahn, Joseph Avella, and Michael Lehrer
Department of Forensic Toxicology, Division of Medical-Legal and Forensic Investigations,
Suffolk County, Hauppage, New York
A 24-year-old female driver with a history of substance abuse
was pronounced dead following a single car motor vehicle accident. A surviving
front seat passenger witnessed the decedent inhaling “Dust Off”
cleaner just prior to losing control of the vehicle. The propellant compound
used in this product is the halogenated hydrocarbon 1,1-difluoroethane (DFE).
Sealed autopsy specimens were examined for the presence and subsequent quantitation
of DFE utilizing an Agilent 6850 gas chromatograph (GC)–flame-ionization
detector. The levels of DFE obtained were as follows: 29.8 mg/L in femoral blood,
40.3 mg/L in pulmonary arterial blood, 85.6 mg/L in aortic blood, 79.9 mg/L
in chest cavity blood, 21.2 mg/L in vitreous, 11.7 mg/kg in brain, 27.9 mg/kg
in liver, 71.0 mg/L in urine, and 51.8 mg/total gastric contents. The presence
of DFE was confirmed in the decedent’s urine by injection on an Agilent
6890/5973 GC–mass spectrometer in full scan mode. This case presents a
uniquely witnessed observation of the apparent impairing effects and consequences
of the acute inhalation of halogenated hydrocarbons such as DFE and the operation
of a motor vehicle. The proximity of time of death to inhalant use may also
provide insight to postmortem distribution patterns of DFE in relation to normal
physiologic blood flow. With further investigations, estimating the time of
final use of an inhalant prior to death may be deciphered from such patterns,
although a degree of caution should be applied in deaths resulting from severe
trauma in which normal tissue structure is compromised because postmortem redistribution
may result.
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