Analysis of Deaths Due to Poisoning: A Two Year Retrospective Study

India is an agriculture based country with Punjab as one of the leading food grain producing states. There is an ever increasing burden to feed the growing population. This has led to over-usage of pesticides, which on one hand has contributed significantly to increase the crop yield, while on the other hand has led to sharp increase in the poisoning cases in the region. The present study was undertaken to study the deaths related to poisoning in Amritsar, Punjab, with a view to assess the pattern, trends and incidence of poisoning in relation to age, sex, area, season, effect of poison on internal organs and type of poison used. Of a total of 2000 autopsies, 201 cases of death due to fatal poisoning were selected for this study, which were brought to us for postmortem examination, during the span of two years (from January 2003 to December 2004). These constituted 10.1% of all the unnatural deaths. In this study, higher number of fatal poisonings episodes were ascribed to Chlorocompounds, followed by Aluminum Phosphide, but on the basis of WHO classification of poisons, Aluminium Phosphide is the most common fatal poison.