A Fatal Dichlorvos Poisoning: Concentrations in Biological Specimens

Abstract: A 54‐year‐old man was found dead with a bottle containing a brownish fluid near him. A toxicological screening was carried out in blood, urine, and stomach content. Only dichlorvos (2,2 dichlorovinyl O‐O dimethylphosphate or DDVP) was found. A simple and rapid method, using DDVP‐D 6 as an internal standard, was developed for the determination of DDVP by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The method was linear from 1 to 10 mg/L. Intraday and interday precisions were all <15%. DDVP concentration in cardiac blood was approximately four times higher than in peripheral blood. A high concentration was found in the heart showing a cardiac tropism of DDVP, kidney and lung concentrations being much lower. No DDVP was found in liver. DDVP stomach content was 38 g. The amount presumed ingested was 82 g, c . 1000 mg/kg of body. The oral LD 50 for DDVP ranges between 20 and 1090 mg/kg in animals but is not known for humans.