Fatal poisoning of chilhood in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey (2009–2013)

• CO, drugs and insecticides are major toxic substances.
• Most of the deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning could be preventable.
• Drugs should be kept away from children in homes.
• Detailed information is very important to find caused of death in autopsy of poisoning cases.
• Efforts should be made to help decrease the number of fatal poisonings of children in the future.

Poisoning is a major problem worldwide among children. Nonetheless, the offending agent, the associated morbidity and mortality vary from place to place and show changes over a period of time. The aim of this study was to investigate the medico-legal paediatric autopsies of childhood poisonings in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. Reports of autopsies performed between 2009 and 2013 in the Morgue Department of the Council of Forensic Medicine. All medico-legal paediatric autopsies in Trabzon (n:1049) were retrospectively examined. The study comprised an investigation into 62 deaths from poisoning in children aged 0–18 years. The parameters of age, sex, toxic substance category and origin were evaluated. Poisoning accounted for 5.9% of the deaths of children aged 0–18 years. Of the 62 cases, 32 (51.6%) were male and 30 (48.4%) were female, giving a female to male ratio of 1/1.1. The primary causes of fatal poisoning in children were carbon monoxide (64.5%, n = 40), followed by drugs (16.1%, n = 10), insecticides (9.7%, n = 6), mushrooms (6.5%, n = 4), and snake venom (3.2%, n = 2). The results of this study implicated carbon monoxide poisoning as a serious risk factor for mortality in our region. Childhood poisoning may be prevented by public education and simple precautions in general.