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From: geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu (Gordon E. Banks)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.chem,sci.med
Subject: Re: Butane death
Message-ID: <1989Sep20.124856.12829@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 89 12:48:56 GMT
References: <89262.194442RAV103@PSUVM.BITNET>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
Lines: 12

In article <89262.194442RAV103@PSUVM.BITNET> RAV103@PSUVM.BITNET (BOB VAN GORDER) writes:
>
>     Today in Pennsylvania, a 15 year old died of a heart attack when he
>inhaled butane in order to "get a rush".
>     I am a chemist leaning towards the inorganic and having no background in
>biochemistry.  I was therefore wondering if anyone out there could tell me
>exactly what caused this heart attack.

Are you sure it was a heart attack?  Who did the autopsy?  Often people
who die without an obvious lesion are labelled heart attack.  It
is possible that his heart suffered anoxia due to butane displacing
the air in his lungs.