Methyl bromide

'Good morning doctor. Oh my god! Are you examining the dead body of a young infant? What
happened to him?'
'Good morning Tarun. The name of this 3 year old girl is varsha. She is the daughter of Radhey
Shyam and Seeta who are living in the ground floor of Mahajan's house as tanents. Radhey Shyam
and Seeta are a young couplein their late twenties.mahajan was living with his family on the first
floor.he had been asking Radhey Shyam and Seeta to vacate his house for quite sometime but they
refused to vacate the house. Many times Mahajan had threatend them with dire consequences, but
nobody took it seriously...'
'So obviously he killed varsha to teach them a lesson?'
'Don't jump to conclusion, Tarun. I have not finished yet. The day before yesterday, Radhe Shyam,
Sita and their daughter Varsha had gone to attend a marriage party from where they returned late in
the night. On entering their house, both Radhey Shyam and Sita experienced a foul smell.
However thinking that the smell was from the sewage, they took little notice of the smell. These
sewage problems had resulted in maintenance work on the sewage pipes in their street just after
noon on the very same day.they nourished the infant and went to bed in their room at about 10:30
p.m. keeping the door open. Two hours later at 1:30 a.m. and about 3 hours before expected, Varsha
started to cry. The child later vomitted and and had severe diarrhoea. At the same time the parents
were alarmed by the burning sensation in their eyes, throat and mouth and they also started to
vomit. They contacted a local doctor on phone but he didn't turned up.although they could not
understand what was happening, they felt that something very wrong was going on, especially as
Mhajan had threatened them with dire consequences. They came out of their houseimmediately
along ewith their child, called a taxi and went to Sita's parents' house to spend the rest of the night
there. Subsequently, varsha became drowsy and was unable to drink milk or water. Yesterday,
around noon time,they took the child to the City Hospital. They reached there at about 1 p.m. But
unfirtunately Varsha was declared dead on arrival.'
'Oh, that's indeed very sad and depressing. So what do you think was going on in the house?'
'Tarun, the whole senario and symptoms of the three persons involved point very strongly in favour
of one poison-methyl bromide.'
'What? Methyl bromide? Doesn't sound like a common poison to me. Please tell me more about it.
'Sure, Tarun. Methyl bromide is not commoly known , but it is indeed a very interesting poison.
Methyl bromide (Ch Br) is also known as bromomethane, monobromomethane, embafume or
iscobrome. Pure Methyl bromide is a colourless gas that is heavier than air. Thus it is one of those
rare poisons which occur in low concentrations. That's why Radhey Shyam and Sita noticed that
strange smell on coming back from the marriage party. '
'Doctor, who in the world uses methyl bromide, and why?'
'Tarun, methyl bromide is in relatively widespread industrial use as a fumigant and insecticide
because of its effective penetrating powerand absence of fire on explosion hazard. Industrial
workers are exposed to it frequently. Nobody knows about indian figures but it is estimated that
about 75,00,000 workers are occupationally exposed to this gas anually.its tixicity is severe and
despite of safeguards, cases of acute and cronic intoxication occur, cheifly in the fruit and tobacco
industries.as afumigant and insecticide. It has also been used as a refrigerent, solvent methylating
agent and in dyes and fore extinguishers. '
'Quite interesting. How can poisoning occur due to this gas?'

'Tarun, toxic exposure to this gas can occur by inhalation as in the case of Varsha or by skin
absorption. The body tries to excrete this poison out of system. Excretion takes place mainly
through the lungs. The remainder is metabolize in the body and inorganic bromde is excreted in the
urine. In European countriescases of accidental poisoning due to fumigation of houses are quite
well known. '
'but how did Mahajan introduce the gas into Radhey Shyam's house?'
'Mahajan was asking Radhey Shyam and his family to vacate his house for quite sometime, but they
were not doing so, so he decide to finish them offin a very clever and sinistic manner. I must admit
that i have never heard of such an exotic method to kill an entire family. In fact, he would have
easily got away with the murder, had the police not decided to contact me. '
'Doctor, i am gettin curious. How did he do it?'
'He contacted an insecticide company and and bought a cylinder of methyl bromidegas on the pretxt
that he wanted to fumigate his crops. From the cylinder he connectd a pipe and inserted the other
end of pipe into the chimneywhich leads to the kitchen on the ground floor. Since th top of the
chimney is on the barsat i above the first floor, where Mahajan was living, it was accessible to him.
After making this elaborate arrangement, he opened the valve of the cylinder releasing the gas into
the chimney. The gas being heavier than air, quickly dropped down into the kitchen and from ther it
seeped into the entire ground floor. When Radhey Shyam and his family entered their house after
attending their party, Mahajan had literally converted their place into a gas chamber. Radhey Shyam
showed presence of mind and left the house quickly with his family, otherwise even he and his wife
would have died.i have asked the police personnel to look specifically for a gas cylinder in
Mahajan's house. Oh here comes the police inspector...What! You did find the methyl bromide
cylinder in his house. Look tarun, I was right. My investigation has indeed worked. The police can
now successfully prosecute Mahajan.'
fantastic! And many thanks for letting me know about such an interesting poison.you indeed are a
great poison sleuth.