The Detection of Accidental Domestic Gas Poisoning
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6003300204 |
| Author | Keith Simpson |
| Published date | 01 April 1960 |
| Date | 01 April 1960 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
KEITH
SIMPSON.
M.D.
The
Detection
of
Accidental
Domestic
Gas
Poisoning
THE TRIST DEATHS IN PORTUGAL
IT IS SURPRISINGLY COMMON in practice for both the police officer
and the doctor to fail to recognise poisoning by carbon monoxide
(CO). the dangerous constituent of domestic
gas-and
a residual
fume of oil and coke combustion. of car exhaust. indeed of any
inefficient or incomplete burning. In 100 successive cases of death
from accidental poisoning by CO which passed through my hands
the fact had been overlooked in no less than 46. in spite of reason-
able vigilance. until the body came to autopsy. In most cases this
was because no one happened to think of the possibility at the time
the victim was found: often the fumes had dissipated. About two-
thirds of the cases are
elderly-over
60--often living alone, becom-
ing less alert to the danger of leaky connections or bad ventilation,
sometimes already frankly ill. The decrepit, the diseased and the
drunk form a large proportion of the
700-800
who die in this
country of CO poisoning by accident each year.
It
is an appalling
toll of life.
Now it may not matter very much if old people who are just
eking out their days alone are thought to have succumbed to old
age or heart disease when, in fact, they have died of CO poisoning:
no one but the statistician may
suffer-though
if the cause is not
recognised the next occupant of the premises may well suffer the
same fate. But there are real dangers also that can arise if the police
officer and doctor are not on the qui
vive-or
should it be qui
meurt-for
CO.
1. Parents with dependent children or promising youngsters into
whose training time and money have been poured may, in
dying, deprive their dependants of their source of livelihood.
Recognition of accidental CO death in such cases may bring
compensation in terms of insurance money or "damages."
2. Suspicion may be quite wrongly directed towards some per-
fectly innocent person. People who collapse of CO poisoning
may injure themselves in falling unconscious and these injuries
may suggest a "beat-up" or level suspicion at someone else.
Some victims feel sick or vomit and this may arouse suspicion
that they have been given poison.
90
April-June
1960
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