Deaths due to solvent inhalation/glue sniffing- effective extraction from blood and viscera by direct distillation as isopropanol azeotrope

“Glue sniffing” deaths are on the rise due to easy availability of products containing industrial solvents such as toluene and xylene, therefore necessitating their detection in post mortem blood and viscera. In such cases where analyte quantity is low, direct instrumental analysis, such as Head Space Gas Chromatography1, may not be feasible. In two separate cases of death, one due to “glue sniffing” and another due to accidental toluene inhalation respectively, a simple method for effective extraction from post mortem blood and viscera by direct distillation as isopropanol azeotropes and subsequent screening with GC-FID has been described.


Keywords: Glue sniffing, solvent inhalation death, toluene inhalation, xylene inhalation.