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    Forensic Toxicology: By: Rosemarie D. Cosue, Ed.D

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    Aubrey
    Forensic toxicology is the application of toxicology to legal investigations to determine the role of chemicals in death or poisoning. It involves analyzing biological samples like blood or urine using techniques like chromatography to identify substances, their amounts, and how they may have contributed to an incident. The goal is to answer questions for legal purposes like determining the substance involved, how it was administered, and by whom. It aids investigations into matters like homicides, drug overdoses, and workplace drug testing. Forensic toxicologists must isolate substances from samples, detect and characterize them using reference materials, quantify amounts, and interpret the results within a case context.

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    Forensic Toxicology: By: Rosemarie D. Cosue, Ed.D

    Uploaded by

    Aubrey
    18 views18 pages
    Forensic toxicology is the application of toxicology to legal investigations to determine the role of chemicals in death or poisoning. It involves analyzing biological samples like blood or urine using techniques like chromatography to identify substances, their amounts, and how they may have contributed to an incident. The goal is to answer questions for legal purposes like determining the substance involved, how it was administered, and by whom. It aids investigations into matters like homicides, drug overdoses, and workplace drug testing. Forensic toxicologists must isolate substances from samples, detect and characterize them using reference materials, quantify amounts, and interpret the results within a case context.

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    Forensic toxicology is the application of toxicology to legal investigations to determine the role of chemicals in death or poisoning. It involves analyzing biological samples like blood or urine using techniques like chromatography to identify substances, their amounts, and how they may have contributed to an incident. The goal is to answer questions for legal purposes like determining the substance involved, how it was administered, and by whom. It aids investigations into matters like homicides, drug overdoses, and workplace drug testing. Forensic toxicologists must isolate substances from samples, detect and characterize them using reference materials, quantify amounts, and interpret the results within a case context.

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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    18 views18 pages

    Forensic Toxicology: By: Rosemarie D. Cosue, Ed.D

    Uploaded by

    Aubrey
    Forensic toxicology is the application of toxicology to legal investigations to determine the role of chemicals in death or poisoning. It involves analyzing biological samples like blood or urine using techniques like chromatography to identify substances, their amounts, and how they may have contributed to an incident. The goal is to answer questions for legal purposes like determining the substance involved, how it was administered, and by whom. It aids investigations into matters like homicides, drug overdoses, and workplace drug testing. Forensic toxicologists must isolate substances from samples, detect and characterize them using reference materials, quantify amounts, and interpret the results within a case context.

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    of 18

    FORENSIC BY: ROSEMARIE D.

    TOXICOLOGY COSUE, Ed.D.


    WHAT IS TOXICOLOGY?
    -is a field of science that helps us understand the
    harmful effects that chemicals, substances, or
    situations, can have on people, animals, and the
    environment.
    -is the study of substances that cause harm
    HOW DO WE DEFINE
    FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY?
    - is the study and practice of the application of toxicology to
    the purposes of the law.
    -Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and disciplines such
    as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid
    medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use .
    Forensic toxicologists must be able to determine:
    - What poison was used? Why was it taken? How? And
    By who?
    FACTS TO KEEP IN MIND
    -less than 1% of homicides result from poisoning
    -accidental overdoses are the most common
    -poisoning is used as the most subtle way of killing
    SUB-DISCIPLINES OF
    FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY
    1. Postmortem forensic toxicology - forensic toxicologists, work with pathologists,
    medical examiners, and coroners to help establish the role of alcohol, drugs, and
    poisons in the causation of death. Postmortem Toxicology investigates suspected drug
    overdoses, homicide, suicide, natural deaths and general unknown deaths where
    toxins are either ruled in or out through testing and interpretation.
    2. Human performance toxicology – Similar to criminal investigation analysis which
    involves the same application of techniques as in the death investigation setting, but
    specimens are typically collected from living persons. Blood and urine are commonly
    encountered, but oral fluid, hair, and other samples are also used.
    3. Forensic drug testing – is performed in a wide variety of settings including the
    workplace, doping control in sports, probation and parole, as well as compliance
    testing.
    HARMFUL SUBSTANCES
    1. POISON – natural or
    manufactured ex. Rat poison
    2. TOXIN- naturally occurring
    substances that cause harm. Ex.
    Snake venom
    3. DRUGS- substances taken for a
    desired effect. Ex. Tylenol,
    overdosed insulin
    PORTAL OF ENTRY OF
    HARMFUL SUBSTANCES
    1. mouth- ingestion
    2. nose-inhalation
    3. skin-absorption or inoculation
    HOW ARE PEOPLE EXPOSED?
    1. intentional
    2. accidental
    3. deliberate
    HOW HARMFUL IS THE
    SUBSTANCE?
    MULTIPLE FACTORS:
    1. dose
    2. duration
    3. entry
    4. interactions
    5. By Products/ metabolites
    PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
    Harmful substances in transport and person “mule” are detected by x-ray and
    sniffing dogs

    Note:
    Appearance of these substances are either in the forms of pills, powder, liquids or
    plants
    EVIDENCE COLLECTION
    Wet plants – dry first and place in paper bags

    Syringes/needles- glass container with this label “hazard”

    Dry – paper bags or paper bindle


    STEPS IN FORENSIC ANALYSIS
    OR TREATMENT OF THE
    SPECIMEN TO GET AN
    ANSWER
    Isolation of the drug/poisonINCLUDE:
    from the matrix, be it blood or vitreous. To do this, some type
    of extraction method is employed to remove the substance from the biological model.
    Detection and characterization of the poison by comparison with known quality control
    reference materials (controls), calibrators, and drug libraries is the next step.
    Identification of the drug, or confirmatory testing, by matching retention times and
    spectrum of an unknown substance in a sample to a known material in the drug library
    Quantification - when a concentration of the substance is determined by comparison to
    values of a calibration curve analyzed on the same run as the samples
    Interpretation - once data is reviewed, forensic toxicologists consider all the results, the
    case information, and known literature to interpret the toxicological findings in a case.
    TESTING PHYSICAL
    EVIDENCE
    QUESTIONS:WHAT IS IT? HOW MUCH? IS IT ILLEGAL?
    1. microscope identification
    2. microcrystalline testing ( dry into crystals and measure light frequency)
    3. gas chromatography (determine “visual” fingerprints)
    4. Spot Test ( negative (pink) or positive (blue)
    BIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
    TESTING BIOLOGICAL
    EVIDENCE
    1. urine- present or absent
    2. stomach-present or absent
    3. liver and blood- best sources ; not only present or absent but shows metabolites,
    amount of drug and short term (acute)or long term (chronic) exposure
    4. hair- can determine the timeline up to 90 day timeline
    POISONS: HEAVY METALS
    1. lead
    2. mercury
    3. arsenic
    POISONS; PESTICIDES AND HERBICIDES

    1. aldrin and dieldrin- pesticides


    2. gycophosphate mixture ( herbicides)
    KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. KEEP
    ON LEARNING!
    ALL THE BEST!

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