ABSTRACT
Organophosphorus pesticides are extensively used in the agricultural sector to kill insects, worms, and other pests. Many people may be poisoned by chlorpyrifos either accidentally or intentionally, including accidental, suicidal, and homicidal poisoning cases in India. The effect of chlorpyrifos on human health depends on factors such as the time, amount and frequency of exposure, the individual's health, and certain environmental conditions. The main objective of this investigation is to identify the post-mortem biological sample that shows the longest detection window, enabling precise chlorpyrifos detection in cases of acute poisoning with varying survival durations. Our research focuses on the detection and distribution of chlorpyrifos in cases of acute poisoning using a simple liquid-liquid extraction and GC-MS/MS analysis. We validated the method, which proved to be effective and reliable. Upon examining various organs, we detected the presence of chlorpyrifos in the stomach tissue, liver tissue, kidney tissue, and blood samples of individuals who consumed chlorpyrifos and passed away immediately, as well as in those who survived for the first 3 days following ingestion. Analysing urine, blood, and liver tissue from individuals who survived for 3 days provided more precise results compared to stomach tissue. Additionally, urine samples played a crucial role in detecting chlorpyrifos in individuals who survived for 4 and 5 days. A blood sample is the most suitable post-mortem biological sample for detecting chlorpyrifos in individuals who survived for a duration of 2 to 4 days. This finding highlights the significance of analysing urine as a valuable sample type, particularly in determining the presence of chlorpyrifos in cases where individuals have survived for a long period of time before their demise. The experimental data and information provided in this study will serve as a valuable resource for forensic toxicologists.
ABSTRACT
The ingestion of the insecticide chlorpyrifos leads to fatal intoxication in suicidal cases, and its distribution can be assessed only after post-mortem. This study attempted to investigate the distribution of chlorpyrifos in forensic visceral tissue samples like stomach, liver, kidney, heart, brain, lung, spleen, muscle and body fluids like blood and urine by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) with the liquid-liquid extraction method. An analysis time of 8.77 min with 1 µl as an injection volume was chosen. The results obtained are analysed using Labsolutions insight LCMS software, considering Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) and Retention Time (RT). Our findings depict that the stomach tissue has very high concentrations of chlorpyrifos, which suggests the possibility of high distribution and aspiration in the stomach tissue. The concentration of chlorpyrifos in stomach tissue ranged from 816 to 901 µg/g in male cadavers and from 443 to 612 µg/g in female cadavers. Among all the tissues, the stomach tissue showed the highest concentration, while the lowest concentration was found in muscle. Metabolic distribution of chlorpyrifos from the stomach contents to the other surrounding organs may occur and hence the concentrations of CPF were also seen in other organs like the liver, lung, kidney, brain, and muscle. These toxicological results from autopsy findings, together with LC-MS/MS indicate that stomach tissue examination gives an accurate profile of insecticide poisoning in forensic samples with acute poisoning.
