Dauðsföll af völdum koloxíðseitrana af útblásturslofti bifreiða 1971-1990

• Main Authors: Jakob Kristinsson, Þorkell Jóhannesson, Ólafur Bjarnason
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Læknafélag Íslands, Læknafélag Reykjavíkur 2009
• Subjects: Sjálfsmorð; Suicide; iceland; Carbon Monoxide Poisoning; Smella; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/84282

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/Open In the years 1971-1990 a total of 99 cases of fatal car exhaust poisonings were registered at the Statistical Bureau of Iceland (fig 1, open and filled bars). Ninety four of these cases were investigated at the Departments of Pharmacology and Forensic Medicine, University of Iceland (fig. 1, filled bars). Eighty five were men and nine were women. At least ninety of these cases were suicides. The mean age of the group was 40.6 years (range 16-72 years). The mortality rate was highest in the age groups 40-59 years (table 1). In the eighties there was a steep rise in the annual number of deaths of this sort (fig 1). This was especially due to increased number of fatal poisonings in the age groups 40-59 years. Carboxyhaemoglobin levels at the time of death ranged from 0-79% (mean 71.4%, fig 2). Ethanol was found in blood i 46 cases (fig. 3) and drugs in 12 cases. The ethanol concentration was in the range 0.2-3.0 %0 (mean 1.46 %o)- The drugs most often found were benzodiazepines and antidepressant drugs. Dauðsföll af völdum útblásturslofts bifreiða eru velþekkt víða um heim. Á þetta ekki síst við í löndum, þar sem bílar eru almenningseign (1-4). Heilbrigðisskýrslur sýna, að hér á landi varð þessara dauðsfalla ekki vart að neinu marki fyrr en um miðjan sjöunda áratuginn. Í ritgerð, sem birtist í Læknablaðinu 1971 (5), var gerð grein fyrir átta dauðsföllum sem urðu með þessum hætti á árunum 1966-1970. Í ritgerð þeirri, sem hér fer á eftir, verður sagt frá 94 dauðsföllum til viðbótar, sem urðu á tímabilinu 1971-1990. Þar eð dauðsföllum af þessu tagi hefur fjölgað mjög á undanförnum árum, þótti rétt að gera grein fyrir þeim á þessum vettvangi.