A FATALITY CAUSED BY HYDROGEN SULFIDE PRODUCED FROM AN ACCIDENTAL TRANSFER OF SODIUM HYDROGEN SULFIDE INTO A TANK CONTAINING DILUTE SULFURIC ACID
Abstract : The National Transportation Safety Board has an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) provide toxicological services for selected surface transportation accidents. Under this agreement, postmortem biosamples from a hazardous chemical accident fatality were submitted to CAMI for toxicological evaluation. The victim succumbed from breathing the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas produced by an accidental transfer of sodium hydrogen sulfide (NaHS) from a tanker truck to a tank containing 4% sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and iron(II) sulfate (FeSO4). After inhaling the gas, the 55-year old male Caucasian truck driver was dead at the scene. Autopsy examination of the decedent's body revealed pulmonary edema and passive congestion in lungs, spleen, kidneys, and adrenal glands. The submitted samples were analyzed for carbon monoxide, cyanide, alcohols, and drugs. Since a potential exposure to H2S was involved, blood was analyzed for sulfide (S(2-)) The analysis entailed isolating S(2-) from blood as H2S using 0.5 M H3PO4, trapping the gas in 0.1 M NaOH, and determining the electromotive force using a sulfide ion specific electrode. Carbon monoxide, cyanide, or ethanol was not detected in blood, but acetaminophen at a therapeutic concentration of 14.3 microg/mL of blood was found, and metoprolol was detected in the blood, liver, and kidney samples. Analysis further revealed the presence of S(2-). in blood at the level of 1.68 microg/mL. This S(2-). concentration is approximately 2 times higher than that reported in the blood of 2 separate fatalities associated with accidental exposures to H2S. The blood S(2-). value in the present case was about 34 times higher than the blood S(2-) concentration (<0.05 microg/mL) in normal subjects.
Sulfide concentrations in postmortem mammalian tissues.
Postmortem changes in sulfide concentrations in body tissues were examined in autopsied rats exposed to hydrogen sulfide concentrations of 550 to 650 ppm, and in nonexposed rats and humans. Analyses were made by gas chromatography, following an extractive alkylation. Sulfide concentrations in the blood, liver, and kidneys of rats increased in both the exposed and nonexposed groups, depending on the lapse of time after death. On the other hand, the lung, brain, and muscle showed little or no change in sulfide concentration with elapse of time after death. The data obtained from human tissues were almost the same as those for rats, except data for blood, in which no or little increase of sulfide was observed.
THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND COLONIALISM: REASONS FOR AFRICA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT?
It is probably an understatement to assert that Africa, the world’s second largest continent, is underdeveloped compared with other continents. Two major exogenous factors often cited for Africa’s development crisis are the so called ‘dual historical injustices’ – the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. It is often pointed out that while the former almost completely arrested and retarded Africa’s demographical growth for more than three centuries, evoked a perennial state of acrimony and warfare and created a tense and unprecedented atmosphere of insecurity which hindered economic activities and stifled local entrepreneurship and technological drive and dislocated Africa’s socio-economic and political structures and institutions; the latter tied African countries to the apron strings of western imperial powers thereby rendering the pre-conditions necessary for socio-economic and political transformation unachievable. This paper contends that while the history of Africa’s underdevelopment may be traceable to the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism, African leaders had made enormous contributions to the continent’s underdevelopment and backwardness. The paper concludes that irresponsible and irresponsive leadership, vampirism and prodigality, corruption, lack of respect for democratic ideals, insecurity, endemic civil wars, nepotism, etc are the fundamental causes of Africa’s underdevelopment.