Most common poisons in intentional poisoning?

Question

I've seen it a million times on CSI and similar shows - someone is dead or sick and they ask for a tox screen. I'd like someone who works in law enforcement, is a phorensic pathologist or a doctor (or whoever knows about this) to tell me, which poisons are most commonly used to poison someone on purpose? If someone suspected that they were being poisoned, which poisons should they ask to be screened for? Do you even need to ask, or does just any poison show up in a test? How is such a test done anyway?

Answer 1

why do u want to know????

Answer 2

-baking soda-this dissovles without a trace and explodes the stomach in overdoses

-car coolent-no trace! husaaaah!!!!

-rat poison-basic but good

Answer 3

Well, first of all - even though I LOVE CSI, the show isn't exactly accurate with a lot of the procedures, and intentional poisonings don't happen with the regularity you see on TV shows.

In the U.S., intentional poisonings of people most typically are done by females to their male partners. Household chemicals are used in some cases, such as anti-freeze (it has a sweet taste so it is mixed in with sweetened drinks), but most commonly they are pharmaceuticals, such as benzodiazepines and opioids.  Both of these methods of poisoning can be pretty readily suspected and detected.

It's much more common to accidentally overdose on Tylenol, heroin or cocaine.  Some people intentionally overdose on Tylenol and liver damage can be severe; if not treated timely and appropriately, death can occur.

There are occasional cases of poisonings with chemicals not commonly or easily available in the U.S. - they are brought in by people who travel abroad or are sent to the U.S. by mail. Those ones may be slightly more difficult to detect since they aren't common here.

Speaking of TV shows - I saw a true story where a doctor was being poisoned with castor beans by his wife.  The symptoms were confounding, and the man almost died - then he found a packet of castor bean seeds in a drawer at home.  He confronted his wife, they had a fight, he left and she torched their house, killing two of their children.  He was tested for the poison and his tests were positive.  His wife was convicted of arson, the murders of their children and attempted murder of the doctor and she went to prison.  

If you suspect you are being poisoned, your symptoms would probably land you in the emergency room.  If you were conscious, you would simply tell the staff you believed you were poisoned.  They would run whatever tests that would match up with the symptoms you were having.