Fatalities Due to the Weed‐killer Paraquat

Two examples of fatal poisoning by the weedkiller paraquat are presented. The first patient deliberately took several hundred millilitres of the solution, and died 36 hours later from intractable peripheral circulatory failure. The second patient accidentally swallowed about 30 ml of the solution, and died 23 days later from a progressive proliferative reaction in the lungs, with hyaline membrane formation. There was indirect evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation, but this condition was relieved with heparin therapy, and cyclophosphamide treatment may have helped the patient to survive longer than any other patient with this condition. The histological appearances of the lung resembled those of oxygen poisoning, and support the theory that oxygen is a factor in the toxic reaction to paraquat.