During 1991, the number of cases requested and examined at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation were 16840. These examinations involved the identification of a wide variety of chemicals in biological fluids and physical evidences. In order to investigate the trend in the use of poisons, the regional monthly distributin of toxic compounds were statistically surveyed.
As a result, the following findings were found ;
1. Toxic compounds in 16840 cases were classified into eighteen categories : Therapeutic drugs(839), Tranquillisers(24), Methamphetamines(743), anaesthetics(10), Narcotics(193), Marihuana(739), Hallucinogenic substances(1692), Carbon monoxide(540), Herb medicine(63), Adulterated food(264), toxin(5), Cyanide(166), Heavy metals(83), Blood alcohol(5043), Acid and alkali(38), Rodenticides(19), Pesticides(313) and others.
2. Monthly distribution of poisons didn´t show a significant difference, however May and October revealed slightly more cases than Jan., Feb., Jul. and Aug.
3. Regional distribution of poisons revealed that Seoul was the highest with the 9020 cases(53.6%) followed by Busan and Kyungnam were 2494(14.8%) and Daeku and Kyungbuk were 1165(9.61).
4. There was marked increase in the number of fatalities from drug abuse in 1991. Fatal concentration of drugs were determined in more than 20 post-mortem bloods. Metham phetamine, zipeprol, dextromethorphan and doxylamines are among them.
5. Because the advent of sophisticated instruments made trace amount of poisons detectable in biological fluids, it was necessary to interpret the result with extreme caution.
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