US EPA

12026 

Journal Article 

Usefulness of thiosulfate as an indicator of hydrogen sulfide poisoning in forensic toxicological examination: a study with animal experiments 

Kage, S; Nagata, T; Kimura, K; Kudo, K; Imamura, T 

1992 

0 

Japanese Journal of Forensic Toxicology
ISSN: 0915-9606 

10 

223-227 

Animal experiments have been made with rabbits to determine how thiosulfate is useful as an indicator of hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Rabbits were exposed to 500-1000 ppm of hydrogen sulfide, the fatal dose, and also to its mild levels of 100-200 ppm. Sulfide and thiosulfate were measured by gas chromatography with an electron capture detector. With fatal exposure to hydrogen sulfide, the levels of thiosulfate in whole blood, lung and brain tissues were 2-7 times higher than those of sulfide itself. With mild exposure, sulfide was not detectable in every sample; but thiosulfate could be detected in blood for 2 h and in urine 24 h after the exposure. From the above data, we propose the measurements of thiosulfate rather than those of sulfide itself for identification of hydrogen sulfide poisoning blood, the lung or brain is recommendable for fatal (autopsy) cases, and urine for non-fatal (survived) cases, as materials to be analyzed.