Citation

Scripcaru A, Knieling A, Manea C, Crauciuc DV, David SM, Sandu I, Iliescu DB. Rev. Chim. (Bucharest) 2018; 69(10): 2816-2818.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Revista de Chimie)

DOI

10.37358/rc.18.10.6631

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2, represented by the symbol He. It is an inert, colorless, odorless, insipid monoatomic gas. It has the lowest boiling point and the lowest melting point among the chemical elements and appears only in gaseous state, except for extreme conditions. The use of helium for suicidal purposes is extremely rare. In Romania, suicide has a frequency of 12 per 100,000 inhabitants, which classifies us in the category of countries with low suicide rates. As methods, men use hanging most often while women use more softer methods such as poisoning. Helium is rarely used for suicidal purposes because it is relatively difficult to obtain. Basically, it is not poisoning in the true sense of the word, but rather the substitution of oxygen with helium, which cannot be carried by hemoglobin, and thus transport asphyxia occurs. At the end of the paper we shall exemplify a case of helium poisoning for suicide purposes, purchased from a cylinder for inflating balloons. ©2018 SYSCOM 18 S.R.L..All right reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Death; Poisoning; Helium; CG real time analysis