A fatal case by a suicide kit containing sodium nitrite ordered on the internet
Open accessAbstract
Fatal sodium nitrite poisonings are rare in the forensic context. The present work describes a first fatal case of sodium nitrite contained in a suicide kit that the victim acquired over the internet. The results of the autopsy showed general signs of asphyxia, such as intense cyanosis of the extremities, brown-gray-blue-red livor mortis, and some Tardieu petechiae in addition to intense visceral congestion. It is clear that forensic experts must be aware of the proliferation of this market and the risks of improper selling of these substances through suicide support networks available on the internet. The lack of knowledge of this reality may become unidentifiable, when toxicological analysis contemplates only the most classical and frequent substances involved in poisoning and reinforce the importance of a careful analysis of the death scene.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Some patients had contacted such organisations but were deterred by legal and practical barriers to non-medically assisted suicide.
“Some had even been in contact with these organisations but were put off by the many legal and practical barriers of their proposed means of nonmedically assisted suicide (Burkhardt et al., 2015;van den Hondel et al., 2020;Durão et al., 2020).”
From Why adults with psychiatric conditions request euthanasia: A qualitative interview study of life experiences, motives and preventive factors (2021) · cites this paper as Durão et al., 2020
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Methemoglobinemia: Etiology, Pharmacology, and Clinical Management
Wright, R. O., Lewander, W. J., & Woolf, A. D. (1999) · Annals of Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1016/s0196-0644(99)70167-8 · Cited by 858 · see citing works
Nitrate and Nitrites in Foods: Worldwide Regional Distribution in View of Their Risks and Benefits
Kalaycıoğlu, Z., & Erim, F. B. (2019) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry · doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.9b01194 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Bebarta, V. S., Brittain, M. K., Chan, A., et al. (2016) · Annals of Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2016.09.034 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Prchal, J. T., & Gregg, X. T. (2005) · Hematology · doi:10.1182/asheducation-2005.1.19 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Nitrite‐induced methaemoglobinaemia – aetiology, diagnosis and treatment
Chui, J., Poon, W., Chan, K., Chan, A. Y. W., & Buckley, T. (2005) · Anaesthesia · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2044.2004.04076.x · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Antiemetic Therapy for Nausea and Vomiting in the Emergency Department
Patanwala, A. E., Amini, R., Hays, D. P., et al. (2009) · Journal of Emergency Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.jemermed.2009.08.060 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Sodium nitrite food poisoning in one family
Cvetković, D., Živković, V., Lukić, V., & Nikolić, S. (2018) · Forensic Science Medicine and Pathology · doi:10.1007/s12024-018-0036-1 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Fatal methaemoglobinaemia induced by self‐poisoning with sodium nitrite
Harvey, M. G., Cave, G., & Chanwai, G. (2010) · Emergency Medicine Australasia · doi:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2010.01335.x · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Extreme methaemoglobinaemia secondary to recreational use of amyl nitrite.
Edwards, R. D., & Ujma, J. (1995) · Emergency Medicine Journal · doi:10.1136/emj.12.2.138 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Fatal Methemoglobinemia Due to Inhalation of Isobutyl Nitrite
Bradberry, S., Whittington, R. M., Parry, D. A. D., et al. (1994) · Journal of Toxicology Clinical Toxicology · doi:10.3109/15563659409000448 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Fatal methaemoglobinaemia in a dental nurse. A case of sodium nitrite poisoning.
Gowans, W. J. (1990) · PubMed · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Fatal Methemoglobinemia Caused by Liniment Solutions Containing Sodium Nitrite
Saito, T., Takeichi, S., Yukawa, N., et al. (1996) · Journal of Forensic Sciences · doi:10.1520/jfs13919j · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Potentially fatal new trend in performance enhancement: a cautionary note on nitrite
Petróczi, A., & Naughton, D. P. (2010) · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · doi:10.1186/1550-2783-7-25 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
A case of fatal methemoglobinemia of unknown origin but presumably due to ingestion of nitrate
Saito, T., Takeichi, S., Osawa, M., Yukawa, N., & Huang, X.-L. (2000) · International Journal of Legal Medicine · doi:10.1007/s004140050290 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Methemoglobinemia following unintentional ingestion of sodium nitrite--New York, 2002.
(2002) · PubMed · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Death Associated with Nitrite Ingestion: Report of a Case
Standefer, J. C., Jones, A., Street, E., & Inserra, R. (1979) · Journal of Forensic Sciences · doi:10.1520/jfs10905j · Cited by 22 · see citing works
An Autopsy Case of Fatal Methemoglobinemia due to Ingestion of Sodium Nitrite
Nushida, M. N. H. (2014) · Journal of Forensic Research · doi:10.4172/2157-7145.1000262 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Unintentional mass sodium nitrite poisoning with a fatality
Lee, C., Jang, E. J., Yum, H., et al. (2017) · Clinical Toxicology · doi:10.1080/15563650.2017.1303142 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Ellis, M., Hiss, Y., & Shenkman, E. A. (1992) · PubMed · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Petróczi, A., & Naughton, D. P. (2008) · British Journal of Sports Medicine · doi:10.1136/bjsm.2008.052894 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Methemoglobinemia Due to Antifreeze Ingestion
Farkas, A., Scoccimarro, A. D., & Pizon, A. F. (2017) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmc1712813 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Understanding acquired methemoglobinemia
Wesley, C. (2014) · Nursing · doi:10.1097/01.nurse.0000441891.89534.c3 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Warren, O. U., & Blackwood, B. (2019) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmicm1816026 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Suicide by Inhalation of Carbon Monoxide of Car Exhausts Fumes
Valente-Aguiar, M. S., Magalhães, T., & Dinis‐Oliveira, R. J. (2019) · Current Drug Research Reviews · doi:10.2174/2589977511666190716165121 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Self-citationMethaemoglobinaemia secondary to the ingestion of sodium nitrite in mistake for common salt
Tung, S.-P., How, C., & Chern, C.-H. (2006) · Resuscitation · doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2006.02.017 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Postmortem changes in carbon monoxide poisoning
Dinis‐Oliveira, R. J., Carvalho, F. D., Magalhães, T., et al. (2010) · Clinical Toxicology · doi:10.3109/15563650.2010.484394 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citationA FATAL CASE OF SODIUM NITRITE POISONING
Barton, G. (1954) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(54)91261-1 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Cozanitis, D. A., Asantila, R., Eklund, P., et al. (1996) · Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d anesthésie · doi:10.1007/bf03011249 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Stability and Reproducibility of the Measurement of Plasma Nitrate in Large Epidemiologic Studies.
Wang, Y., Townsend, M. K., Eliassen, A. H., & Wu, T. (2013) · PubMed · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Fatal Methemoglobinemia Due to Acute Inhalation of Methyl Nitrite in an Industrial Accident
Huang, S., Wang, R., Guo, B., Ruan, H., Ma, J., Ren, L., & Liu, L. (2020) · Journal of Forensic Sciences · doi:10.1111/1556-4029.14275 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Katabami K, Hayakawa M, Gando S. Severe Methemoglobinemia Due to Sodium Nitrite Poisoning. Case Reports in Emergency Medicine. 2016, 2016:9013816.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Verhofstadt, M., Pardon, K., Audenaert, K., Deliens, L., Mortier, F., Liégeois, A., & Chambaere, K. (2021) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.09.032 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
- Authors
- Durão, C., Pedrosa, F., & Dinis-Oliveira, R. J.
- Affiliations
- National Legal Medicine Institute (PT)
- Venue
- Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-07
- Volume
- 73
- Pages
- 101989
- ISSN
- 1752-928X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3032983114
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 6.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Toxicology › Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Historical and Scientific Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Emergency Medicine › Poisoning and overdose treatments
- Keywords
- sodium nitrite poisoning, online drug sales, asphyxia, cyanosis, livor mortis, toxicological analysis, forensic toxicology
- MeSH terms
- Suicide, Completed, Adult, Chromatography, Gas, Chromatography, Liquid, Commerce, Food Preservatives, Gastrointestinal Contents, Humans, Male, Nitrites, Sodium Nitrite, Mass Spectrometry, Trazodone, Citalopram, Internet
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
