ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 January 1977
Page Count: 6

Electron Impact Mass Spectrometric Detection of Freon^® in Biological Specimens
Bowerman, DL
Toxicologists, Toxicology Laboratory, St. Francis Hospital, Colo.

Levisky, JA
Toxicologists, Toxicology Laboratory, St. Francis Hospital, Colo.

Pflug, JL
Toxicologist, Frank J. Seiler Research Laboratory (AFSC), United States Air Force Academy, Colo.

Wittenberg, PH
Toxicologists, Toxicology Laboratory, St. Francis Hospital, Colo.

Urich, RW
Toxicologists, Toxicology Laboratory, St. Francis Hospital, Colo.

(Received 16 February 1976; accepted 22 April 1976)

Abstract

Recently the toxicity and abuse of aerosols containing Freon^® have been brought to the attention of the public. Unpublished reports by the Drug Abuse Council indicate increased instances of aerosol addiction among the very poor, disenfranchised, and marginal minority groups. Also, deaths related to aerosols have been known for years. Bass [1] described 110 SSDs (Sudden Sniffing Deaths) during the 1960s, 59 of which were Freon-related. Christopoulos and Kirch [2] and Baselt and Cravey [3] demonstrated the presence of trichlorofluoromethane and dichlorodifluoromethane in postmortem specimens of Freon-induced deaths. The above authors used gas chromatographic (GC) techniques employing electron capture and flame ionization detectors (FID), respectively, for the quantitative analyses of these compounds. Standefer [4] also reported FID-GC data on specimens from a death associated with fluorocarbon inhalation.

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Paper ID: JFS10365J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10365J
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