Sadlik J.K.

Institute of Forensic Research, Westerplatte 9, 31-033 Cracow, Poland

For more than 20 years thallium poisonings have been very rare in Poland. In this paper I have presented a case of acute thallium poisoning of 8 people including 6 members of the same family. Three people died in the first phase of the poisoning, and the others recovered after treatment in clinics. The cause of the poisoning was at first unknown.
The diagnosis of the poisoning was carried out in the author's laboratory. The AAS method (flame and flameless technique) was used to carry out the analysis. Samples of urine, blood and sections of internal organs were studied. The blood and urine of the poisoned people were constantly monitored during hospitalization. At the beginning Tl concentrations in the blood of patients were from 0.2 to 2.5 µg/mL, in the urine from 2.5 to 16.2 µg/mL. TI concentrations in the autopsy materials were: in liver - 81.0, 59.2, 12.1 µg/g, in kidney - 62.5, 38.5, 11.8 µg/g. In cases of unexplained poisonings we should always take into account the possibility of a rarely encountered poisoning. Urine is a good diagnostic material in cases of acute thallium poisonings because of a high concentration of this element, which can be easily and quickly determined using the flame AAS.