title: Plastic bag suffocation.
abstract: Suffocation by plastic bag is not common. The finding of a body at the scene of death with a plastic bag in situ could be diagnostically valuable to the pathologist. Otherwise the pathologist may be hard put to arrive at a firm opinion as to how the deceased met his/her death; in fact, in three of the cases reported in this paper, the local pathologist could not give a cause of death when the initial autopsy was performed. Plastic bags could be accidentally placed over the head; put there to help in the inhalation of volatile substances; with homicidal intention; or simply as an effective suicidal method. The object of this paper is to study the cases where bodies were found with a plastic bag over the head, and in particular the cases where the cause of death was due to plastic bag suffocation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, London Hospital Medical College.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Perez Martinez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chui
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cameron
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010969:Plastics; D013405:Suicide
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics