Forensic science international
-
To determine the effects of a sudden and sustained reduction in heroin purity on the toxicology of heroin overdose, 959 consecutive heroin overdose cases autopsied at the NSW Department of Forensic Medicine (1/1/1998-31/12/2006) were analysed. There was a significant reduction in blood morphine concentration across the study period (beta=-0.07), declining from a median of 0.50mg/L in the years 1998-2000 prior to 0.40mg/L in the period 2001-2006. ⋯ The decline in blood morphine concentrations remained significant after controlling for these factors (beta=-0.07). In determining toxic and lethal morphine concentrations, the fact that the toxicology of overdose is responsive to changes in the opioid street market needs to be borne in mind.
-
Case Reports
Injury biomechanics as a necessary tool in the field of forensic science: a pedestrian run-over case study.
A 49-year-old male pedestrian was fatally injured when an overloaded truck backed over him and two of the truck's rear wheels rolled over his chest. An analysis is presented to estimate whether or not the subject would have been severely injured if the truck had been loaded to the maximum-permitted weight. ⋯ The analysis suggests that loading by either the case weight or the maximum-permitted weight of the vehicle would have caused very severe compressions of the chest, likely resulting in multiple rib fractures, collapse of the ribcage and injury to the thoracic organs. Thus, this analysis suggests that severe, possibly life-threatening, thoracic injury would have occurred if the vehicle was loaded to its maximum-permitted weight.