Pesticide and agricultural chemical deaths
- Finding
In Colombia pesticides cause most of the poisoning deaths reported, mainly suicides; paraquat is the agent most often involved.
What it is
Pesticides (organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, herbicides such as paraquat, rodenticides and others) are a major forensic problem in rural areas. According to the 2024 report of the Instituto Nacional de Salud, pesticides caused 41.3% of the acute poisoning deaths reported, and in completed suicides the substance most often involved was paraquat. The forensic work is to recognise the findings, protect the staff, take the right samples (including the hospital ones) and establish the manner of death, which almost always depends on the scene and the history. Diagnosis and treatment are on each condition's page.
How to tell it apart
- Versus sudden natural death: the odour, product in the stomach and containers point the way; toxicology confirms.
- Versus other corrosives: paraquat causes oral lesions and, with survival, lung fibrosis.
- Versus cyanide: both can be rapid, but organophosphates cause miosis and copious secretions.
- Manner of death: suicide in most; also accident (occupational, storage in drink bottles) and, rarely, homicide.
How to recognise it
- Scene: agrochemical containers, glasses or bottles with residue, coloured granules, a strong solvent odour.
- Organophosphates and carbamates: miosis, sweating, copious bronchial and nasal secretions, lung and glottic oedema, gastritis with product in the stomach.
- Paraquat: erosions of the lips, tongue, pharynx and oesophagus; heavy lungs with oedema, haemorrhage and, if the person survived for a time, fibrosis.
- Paraquat: renal tubular necrosis, hepatic steatosis or cholestasis, myocardial haemorrhages.
- Histology: diffuse alveolar damage in paraquat; acute tubular necrosis in both groups.
How it forms
- Organophosphates inhibit acetylcholinesterase; acetylcholine builds up and death is usually from respiratory failure (secretions, bronchospasm, paralysis).
- Carbamates: a similar mechanism, usually shorter-lasting.
- Paraquat concentrates in the lung and generates free radicals; it causes alveolar damage and, days later, progressive fibrosis.
- Local corrosion: many agricultural products injure the mucosa of the mouth, oesophagus and stomach.
Next step: what to do and document
- If the patient dies after pesticide poisoning, keep the admission blood and urine and the gastric contents or lavage cold and labelled.
- Ask the family or police for the containers and hand them over with chain of custody; record any brand name only as container data.
- Notify Sivigila (event 365); the 2024 INS protocol treats chlorpyrifos poisoning as an epidemiological alert.
- If there was suicidal intent, record the risk and the mental health care given; the death is also notified to event 365.
- At autopsy, use respiratory and skin protection and ventilate the room before opening the stomach.
Common mistakes
- Not keeping the admission samples of a patient who dies days later from paraquat.
- Giving "multi-organ failure" as the cause without naming the poison that caused it.
- Opening the body without protection: staff can develop symptoms from the vapours.
- Assuming suicide without reviewing the scene, the history and the possibility of an occupational accident.
Test yourself
Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.
Which autopsy findings suggest an organophosphate death?
Pinpoint pupils, copious respiratory secretions, pulmonary oedema, gastritis with product in the stomach and a strong solvent odour.
Why may paraquat go undetected in a late death?
Because death from lung fibrosis comes days or weeks later, when the poison has already been eliminated; that is why admission samples are kept.
What risk do staff face at the autopsy of an organophosphate poisoning?
Inhaling vapours from the body and gastric contents, with symptoms such as headache, salivation and miosis; protection and ventilation prevent it.
According to the Instituto Nacional de Salud, which substance was most often involved in completed suicides by poisoning in 2024?
Paraquat; pesticides as a group caused the most acute poisoning deaths.
Connections
Educational content on forensic and legal medicine; not legal advice and no substitute for the technical guides of Colombia's National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. Laws change: each page links the official text and says when it was last checked. For a real case, follow the guide in force and ask the competent authority.
Sources: Informe de Evento 2024 Intoxicaciones Agudas por Sustancias Químicas (Instituto Nacional de Salud, 2025); Protocolo de vigilancia en salud pública: intoxicaciones agudas por sustancias químicas (código 365, versión 07) (Instituto Nacional de Salud, 2024); Acute Organophosphate Poisoning Case Review With Consideration of Off-Gassing During Postmortem Examination (The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 2023); Paraquat Poisoning: Insights from Autopsy, Histology, and Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Multidisciplinary Forensic Toxicology Practice (Toxics, 2024).
Spotted a mistake?We are always improving for the community. Tell us what is wrong and our team will review it.Report a mistake
Representative model, for educational purposes only.