Carbon monoxide concentrations in the 2009 Victorian Bushfire disaster victims
Dimitri Gerostamoulos, Jochen Beyer, Katherine Wong, Catherine Wort & Olaf H Drummer
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abstract
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Blood was available for the estimation of carboxyhemoglobin
saturation (COHb) in 30 of the 173 persons who died in the Victorian
bushfires in February 2009. The ages of these 30 deaths ranged from
3 to 80 years and there were 8 females. 13 cases (43%) were
considered negative (less than 5% COHb), 12 (40%) were between 5 and
40% COHb, 2 (6.7%) between 40 and 50% and 3 (10%) were greater than
50% COHb. There were 6 persons either found within a building or a
car and the COHb in these cases ranged up to 69% (mean 50%). There
were 5 cases where the location was unable to be determined as
either indoor or outdoor due to the extensive nature of the fire.
The remaining 19 deceased persons were all located outside in the
open and the concentration of COHb in these cases ranged up to 30%
(mean 19%). Hydrogen cyanide was only detected in two deceased
persons at concentrations of 0.5 and 2.7 mg/L, respectively. 13
deceased were found to have soot in the airways following necropsy
but this did not correlate with the COHb levels.
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citation
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Gerostamoulos D, Beyer J, Wong K, Wort C, Drummer O H. Carbon
monoxide concentrations in the 2009 Victorian Bushfire disaster
victims. Forensic Sci Int 2010; 205:69-72.
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type
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journal paper/review (English)
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date of publishing
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19-11-2010
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journal title
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Forensic Sci Int (205/1-3)
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ISSN electronic
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1872-6283
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pages
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69-72
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PubMed
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21093997
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DOI
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10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.08.029
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