1.Bodies recovered from wells, sewerage systems and pits: what is the cause of death?
Burcu ESIYOK ; Yasemin BALCI ; Mehmet OZBAY
Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore 2006;35(8):547-551
INTRODUCTIONThe aim of this study was to determine the problems encountered during investigations into causes of death in corpses found in wells, sewer systems and pits, and to seek solutions to the problems. In fact, wells, sewer systems and pits have some common characteristics which may cause the problems. They contain water, have a hypoxic/anoxic environment and prevent corpses from being recognised.
MATERIALS AND METHODSBased on the data obtained from the 1st Specialization Board of the Council of Forensic Medicine, affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, we retrospectively reviewed 69 corpses found in wells, sewer systems and pits between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 2002. Data on age, sex, crime scene and causes of death were obtained and evaluated using the SPSS 11.0 package programme.
RESULTSOf 69 cases, 69.1% were male and 33.4% were aged 0 to 10 years. Fifty-eight per cent and 13.1% of the cases were found in wells and sewer systems respectively. Forty-three (62.3%) cases were found in a place with water. However, 34.9% of them had not drowned. The most frequent cause of death was drowning (40.6%). The cause of death was unknown in 18.8% of the cases. 15.9% of the corpses were exhumed to determine the cause of death. Twenty-six cases (37.7%) had signs of putrefaction and the cause of death was not determined in 9 cases. Diatom was investigated in 42.0% of the cases (29 cases), but 17 cases did not have diatom.
CONCLUSIONIt is a complicated process to determine the causes of death in bodies recovered from wells, pits, water supplies and sewer systems, etc. Thorough forensic investigations are required because death may result from a wide variety of factors, and lesions on the corpses may undergo some changes quickly or can be covered in wells, pits and water supplies. A complete crime scene investigation, a thorough autopsy and histopathological, toxicological and biochemical examinations would prevent potential problems in determining the causes of death in bodies recovered from wells, sewer systems and pits. Almost one-third of the bodies recovered from wells, sewer systems and pits were aged 10 years or younger, which indicates a public health problem. Extra safety precautions will help to solve this problem.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Autopsy ; Cause of Death ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Diatoms ; growth & development ; Drowning ; mortality ; pathology ; Female ; Homicide ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Postmortem Changes ; Retrospective Studies ; Turkey ; epidemiology ; Water Supply ; Wounds and Injuries ; mortality ; pathology
2.Prevalence of chronic bronchitis-asthma symptoms in biomass fuel exposed females.
Kürşat UZUN ; Bülent OZBAY ; Erkan CEYLAN ; Mehmet GENCER ; Ismail ZEHIR
Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 2003;8(1):13-17
OBJECTIVESWe investigated whether exposure to biomass fuel is a potential risk factor for chronic bronchitis and asthma among females in rural area in Van (east Turkey).
METHODSThe effect of indoor pollution producing various respiratory symptoms was studied in 177 females. Of these, 90 were those who used biomass fuel and 87 were nonusers of biomass fuel. A part of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey quastionnaire and British Medical Research Council questionnaire were used.
RESULTSAsthma related symptoms (AS) (wheezing, and combination of wheezing without a cold and wheezing with breathlessness) were reported in 63.3% of those who used biomass fuel, and in 12.9% of nonusers (p<0.0001). The use of asthma medication was reported as 3.3% of biomass fuel users, and in 2.7% of nonuser (p>0.05). Long term cough and/or morning cough together with sputum (chronic bronchitis symptoms (BS) was reported as 58.9% in the user group, and 29.4% in the nonuser group (p<0.0001). Significant differences in AS and BS were found between biomass fuel user and nonuser groups in the rural area.
CONCLUSIONSThe results of this study showed a significant association between symptoms of chronic bronchitis-asthma and biomass fuel usage in females living in a rural area.