Toxicology of Specific Substances

Ethanol intoxication and drunkenness are underlying factors in many fatal poisonings, either alone or combined with other psychoactive substances ingested together with ethanol. The aliphatic alcohols represent a family of organic compounds that contain one or more hydroxyl groups. This chapter discusses the low-molecular aliphatic alcohols are all completely miscible with water, and there is no evidence that they bind to plasma proteins. Compared with methanol and ethylene glycol, the prevalence of fatal poisonings with Diethylene glycol is rather low. Naturally occurring poisons can be divided into two distinct groups: toxins and venoms. An illegal drug or a so-called ‘controlled substance’ is a drug whose use, sale or distribution is not allowed. A special problem in forensic toxicology is the interpretation of human tissue concentrations of toxic heavy metals. Paracetamol is also known as acetaminophen, which is widely used as an active ingredient in over-the-counter antipyretic and antipyretic analgesics.