Paraquat Poisoning:
A 24-year old woman was awarded the death sentence by a Thiruvananthapuram court which found her guilty of poisoning her boyfriend in 2022 with a chemical herbicide called paraquat.
- Paraquat also known as paraquat dichloride or methyl viologen, it is one of the world’s most-used herbicides.
- It is primarily used to control the growth of weeds and desiccate crops like cotton before harvest.
- The WHO classifies paraquat as Category 2 (moderately hazardous and moderately irritating) chemical.
- Its sale is banned in over 70 countries, including China and the European Union, due to its potent toxicity. It is widely used in the US and in India.
- Ingestion is the most common route of exposure.
- It may also be transferred and absorbed through prolonged skin contact.
- It depends on the amount, means and length of exposure to the chemical.
- If ingested in a small amount, a person would display signs of damage to the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs over several days or weeks.
- If ingested in large amount then the person could face acute kidney failure, rapid heart rate, failure of the heart and liver, seizures and respiratory failure.
- The person would immediately display abdominal pain, swelling and pain in the mouth and throat, bloody diarrhoea and nausea.
- There are no known antidotes for paraquat poisoning but some studies mentions that immunosuppression and Charcoal Hemoperfusion (CHP) can be used.
- CHP uses activated charcoal to remove toxins from the blood.
