Blood carbofuran concentrations in suicidal ingestion cases.

We describe four fatal cases due to ingestion of carbofuran, a carbamate insecticide. Carbofuran was detected in the gastric contents using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrophotometry (GC/MS), and quantified in the blood using a gas chromatograph equipped with nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD). Fatal concentrations of carbofuran in blood ranged from 0.32 to 11.6 microg/ml.