Supermarket tampering: cocaine detected in syringes and in fruit

Product tampering, as detailed by the Federal Anti-Tampering Act of 1983 (1), is a felony punishable by both fine and imprisonment. The rationale for product tampering ranges from pranks and attention seeking acts to extortion, terrorism, and homicide. One such case submitted for analysis involved four medical syringes found in a supermarket and suspected of being used to tamper with various products. One of the syringes was found piercing a pear while the other three syringes were found with needles exposed in other parts of the supermarket. Microscopic analysis was used to collect residue from the syringe barrels and the pear. A multidiscipline approach involving SLM, PLM, including microchemical analysis, FTIR, and GC/MS analyses, performed on the residual liquid found in the syringe barrels and in the suspect pear, confirmed the presence of cocaine. This multidisciplinary approach is often necessary when there is a possible health risk to the public and rapid response is important. With this approach, it was quickly determined which drugs or poisons were used in this tampering.     

Determination of drug levels in larvae of Protophormia terraenovae and Calliphora vicina (Diptera: Calliphoridae) reared on rabbit carcasses containing morphine

Two species of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) were reared on tissues from rabbits administered different dosages of morphine. These species, Protophormia terraenovae and Calliphora vicina are among the first wave of insects colonizing a dead body. Two series of 3 rabbits were given dosages of 10, 20, and 40 mg/h of morphine over a 3 h period via ear artery perfusion. A morphine blood level plateau was attained after 1 h of perfusion. Two other rabbits were used as controls. Samples of tissues collected from rabbits using a coelioscopic technique were determined to have morphine concentrations similar to those encountered in human overdoses and were correlated with dosages of morphine administered. All samples from control rabbits were negative for morphine. Larvae and puparia of both species were regularly collected from each rabbit for toxicological analysis. Concentrations of morphine in larvae reared on rabbit carcasses containing morphine were significantly lower than concentrations found in the tissues. There was a decrease in concentration in morphine observed in transition from feeding 3rd instar larva to puparium. A correlation between larval concentration and tissue concentration was found only in feeding 3rd instar larvae.     

Business Associate Agreements Inventory

This Business Associate Agreement Inventory is a checklist for use by covered entities who use or disclose individually identifiable health information with or to their Business Associates. The checklist is designed to assist the covered entities to review their contracts with each respective Business Associate and determine whether the contracts contain all of the provisions required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations. The regulations addressed in the checklist include the Transactions and Code Sets Standards (effective October 16, 2000), the proposed Security Standards, and the final Privacy Regulations (published December 28, 2000).     

Fatal cranial injuries caused by an electric angle grinder

A case of fatal cranial injuries caused by an angle grinder is reported. The scalp lesions were typical of those produced by a cutting disk in a side-slipping movement. On the cranial vault were two bony losses of substance, one of which was deep enough for intracranial penetration of the disk. Signs of deflection of the disk, identical to those found on the scalp, were observed on the external bony table. Because of the circumstances in which the victim was discovered, in particular the damage to the machine which had a broken handle, and the lack of any indication of homicide or suicide, an accident is the most likely hypothesis.     

Building faces from dry skulls: are they recognized above chance rates?

Methods of facial approximation have successfully aided the identification of deceased individuals. Successes may be due to either accurate facial approximation techniques or chance. This study aims to determine if any of 16 facial approximations, built using standard techniques, are sufficiently accurate to produce correct identifications of target individuals above chance. Four skulls were approximated using four commonly used methods of facial approximation. The resulting 16 facial approximations were judged by 37 assessors of varying ages. Assessors attempted to identify the target individual of each facial approximation from a face pool of ten photographed faces. Only one facial approximation resulted in true positive identification rates above chance at statistically significant levels. It is concluded that it is rare for facial approximations to be sufficiently accurate to allow identification of a target individual above chance. Since 403 incorrect identifications were made out of 592 identification scenarios, facial approximation should be considered to be a highly inaccurate and unreliable forensic technique. These results suggest that facial approximations are not very useful in excluding individuals to whom skeletal remains may not belong. Evidence from this experiment supports suggestions by others that facial approximation should be used in forensic science when all other methods of identification have failed and only to provide tentative identification.     

Immunohistochemical contribution to the study of morphine metabolism in Calliphoridae larvae and implications in forensic entomotoxicology

Morphine was detected by immunohistochemistry on sections of third stage larvae of Calliphora vomitoria (Diptera, Calliphoridae) reared on minced beef meat previously treated with morphine hydrochloride. The detection was performed with an avidin-biotin-peroxidase-complex method. Positive specimens showed specific staining of the haemolymph and a more intense immunoreaction in an area located at the limit between exocuticle and endocuticle. These results constitute an evidence of morphine accumulation inside the cuticle of Diptera larvae during their development. During the pupariation, the larval cuticle is transformed into the sclerotized puparium. This study consequently points out the possibilities of analyzing empty pupariae when suitable tissues or living necrophagous insects are absent.