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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.chem,sci.med
Subject: Re: Butane death
Summary: Possible mechanisms...
Message-ID: <3398@kitty.UUCP>
Date: 21 Sep 89 03:40:26 GMT
References: <89262.194442RAV103@PSUVM.BITNET>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 85

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.  Was it due to the products of the
> oxidation of the butane, or something else?  I had expected the person would
> have died of a stroke, or suffocation, why a heart attack?

	There are not enough details in your article to be precise as to
the actual mode of death in this particular instance, but here are some
general comments.

	In a sufficiently high concentration at atmospheric pressure
butane is known to induce narcosis.  The effect of butane is not unlike
that of an aliphatic, non-halogenated anesthetic agent such as cyclopropane;
however, butane does not possess a lipid solubility as great as that of
cyclopropane, and therefore its anesthetic effect is no where near as great.

	The problem with inhalation of a substance such as butane is not
the adverse physiological effect of butane per se, but its inhalation
may often be carried out under circumstances which result in oxygen
deprivation and hence death by asphyxiation.

	Since a high concentration of butane is required before any
"effect" is noticed, it is not likely that its administration would
carried out merely by inhaling the contents of say, a butane lighter.
A more likely scenario is that a victim would discharge the contents
of one or more butane lighters into a plastic bag, and either place
the bag about their head or merely inhale and "rebreathe" into the
bag.  In the former situation a victim might lose consciousness as
a result of the combined effect of hypoxia and narcosis, leaving the
bag about the mouth and nose, hence blocking any natural attempt to
breathe.  The latter situation tends to be somewhat self-limiting
and less likely to be fatal in that as the victim loses consciousness
as a result of both hypoxia and narcosis, they drop the bag, allowing
the mouth and nose to be exposed to the atmosphere so that breathing
can occur.

	Assuming that no irreversible condition has occured, a victim
who has lost consciousness due to inhalation of an agent such as butane
will generally spotaneously recover consciousness once they resume
breathing atmospheric oxygen.

	One of the problems in "rebreathing" butane from a plastic bag
is that the victim may encounter a race condition where: (1) butane
uptake occurs; (2) oxygen remaining in the bag is consumed; (3) carbon
dioxide is accumulated; (4) increased carbon dioxide concentration in
the blood results in hyperventilation; (5) resultant hyperventilation
further increases the effects of (1) through (4), etc.  If the bag
does not fall from the victim's face upon the loss of consciousness,
the above race condition may cause death due to asphyxiation in as
little as five minutes.

	A victim in a combined state of butane narcosis and hypoxia may
not even be aware that they are in a state of both hyperventilation and
hypoxia, and are in effect minutes away from death.

	With respect to the death reported as a heart attack, if the victim
had a pre-existing heart condition, the exertion resulting from the
hyperventilation and its profound physiological effects caused by the above
scenarios may well have triggered such a cardiac event.

	With respect to direct toxic affects of butane, these may well
be minimal.  While methane will directly combine with hemoglobin to
for methemoglobin, which competes with oxyhemoglobin, I suspect that
the butane molecule is too large to undergo such a substitution with
hemoglobin.

	So, the point is, without examining the circumstances of the
scene at the time of death, and without knowing the autopsy and
toxicology screen results, one can do no more than speculate as I have
done above.

>       I have never heard of anyone doing something that stupid before and I
> quite hope to never hear of a similar tragedy.

	This is _tame_ compared to what other people have done; just ask
someone who has been a police officer or worked in an emergency room for
several years.

<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
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