Toxicologist, forensic

Dr. Karch was elected a fellow of the Faculty of Legal and Forensic Medicine, Royal College of Physicians (London) in 2006. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT), the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME), the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and the Forensic Science Society of the U.K. He is a member of The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TLAFT). 

Anderson RA, Harland WA. 1980. The analysis of volatiles in blood from fire fatalities. Forensic Toxicol, Proceedings of the European Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, 279-292. 

Forensic toxicologists are generally employed by federal, state, and local government crime laboratories, which may be affiliated with the medical examiner s office from which they receive fluids and tissues for analysis. They often work on criminal cases and usually testify for the office of the district attorney, the prosecutor. Forensic toxicologists may also be involved in drug testing in... 

Helmlin, H.J., Bracher, K., Salamone, S.J., and Brenneisen, R., Analysis of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) and its metabolites in human plasma and urine, Society of Forensic Toxicologists, Inc., Phoenix, AZ, October 1993 [Abstract]. 

Jenkins, A.J., B.A. Holicky, T.M. Grant, W.D. Darwin, et al., Blood concentrations and pharmacological effects after oral heroin administration, paper presented at Society of Forensic Toxicolo-gists/The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, Joint Conference (October 1994), abstr. 127, 1994. 

Reports provided by forensic toxicology personnel and expert consultants may ultimately be introduced as evidence in a court of law. These reporting individuals may be asked to interpret and substantiate their findings and any associated opinions. It is therefore necessary that the forensic toxicologist be thoroughly knowledgeable or familiar with legal practices and be professionally comfortable in a courtroom environment. 

Arado, M. G., Garrote, I. V., Laborde, L., Bosch, A., and Ferrari, L. A. (2001). Cocaine and Lidocaine in hair and nails from decomposed bodies, in Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting of The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists— Poster Abstracts Vol. 2002. http //www.tiaft.org/tiaft2001/posters/p75.doc. Baden, H. P. (1990). Hair keratin, in Hair and Hair Diseases (C. E. Orfanos and R. 

Forensic toxicologists are a very special breed, and they do require special training. 

Despite spectacular advances in pharmacology and pharmacy and Federal control, there are too many people poisoned as a result of medical mismanagement, pharmaceutical company propaganda, and public advertising of the latest cure-all wonder drug. This fact alone is likely to keep the forensic toxicologist in business with indefinite job security. 

Meanwhile, the forensic toxicologist has come far in our fast-moving society from the days of hemlock and arsenic to pesticides and narcotics. There is much work to be done,but with good science and a sense of personal involvement much will be accomplished. This light, broad-brush picture of the forensic toxicologist at work is a glimpse at best,but perhaps the curtain has been raised and the interest of his fellow scientists stimulated to inquire further into the analytic arts. 

C. Walls. Drug testing in hair a selective review in SOFT conference on hair, 1994. Published by Society of Forensic Toxicologists, Mesa, AZ. 

VI. Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) Consensus Statements.13... 

VI. SOCIETY OF FORENSIC TOXICOLOGISTS (SOFT) CONSENSUS STATEMENTS... 

Hearn, W. L., Chairman, Advisory Committee on Hair Analysis for Drugs of Abuse. Report to the Annual Meeting of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists, October 13-17, 1992, Cromwell, CT. Harkey, M. R. and Henderson, G. L., Hair analysis for drugs of abuse, in Advances in Analytical Toxicology, Vol. 2, Baselt, R. C., Ed., Yearbook Medical Publishers, Chicago, 1989, 298. 

Accidental self-poisoning and attempted suicide cases are generally the responsibility of tiie clinical toxicologist or the hospital biochemist, working in conjunction with a poison control centre. A small proportion of these cases is referred to the forensic toxicologist, either because of an allegation of malicious poisoning, or because the patient dies and a coroner s inquest is ordered. The preliminary analysis may already have been carried out, and close co-operation between the forensic and hospital laboratories is obviously desirable. What follows is an attempt to provide an account of tiie principles. 

If the poison is not specified by name, the request to test for poisons is a major problem for the chemist, because there is no single chemical method of analysis capable of detecting all the various poisons. At least seven different analytical schemes are required to exclude even the most commonly encountered poisons (Fig. 1). Compared with toxicologists in academic research or industry, the task of the forensic toxicologist is made more difficult because the analytical material, the available time, and the resources are all severely limited. He has scarcely any control over the sampling time or the selection of material for analysis, and no certain knowledge that a poison is present. 

The crucial evidence of identification and quantification of the poison may be faultless and the conclusions correct but, if the court s confidence in the forensic toxicologist as an unbiased scientific expert is destroyed, the case may be lost. Orfila was well acquainted with this aspect of forensic toxicology, and the guiding principles he established over 100 years ago are still applicable. These may be summarised as follows ... 

Modern analytical methods can give the forensic toxicologist the ability to answer questions which previously were considered either hopeless or not... 

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