Lethal Bentazone Intoxication – A Report of Two Cases

Abstract

This study presents two cases of lethal bentazone poisonings, their clinical presentation, the course of the disease and the autopsy findings. The first is a 50-year-old male who had sprayed corn with a solution of bentazone and was admitted to the hospital with sweating, fever, nausea, vomiting of aqueous and hemorrhagic content, and bloody, watery stools. He was treated according to the symptoms including extracorporeal hemodialysis, but eventually suffered from multiorgan failure (acute respiratory failure, acute liver failure, coagulopathy, acute renal failure, metabolic acidosis, and gastrointestinal bleeding) and died 11.35 h after admittance. The cause of death was probable bentazone intoxication. The second case, also a male, aged 49 who committed suicide by ingesting a bentazone solution. He was transferred to the hospital prostrated and cyanotic and died 14.15 h after admittance despite all efforts by the hospital staff. The cause of death was acute bentazone intoxication.

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“…Bentazone is a selective-contact herbicide that is widely used as a postemergence treatment on soybean, wheat, and rice fields. Bentazone irreversibly blocks photosynthetic electron transport in higher plants, inhibiting photosynthesis [24] and provoking oxidative stress [25]. Bentazone is readily absorbed by leaves; however, the absorption and translocation rate varies among plant species and varieties.…”

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“…The toxic symptoms and signs of acute bentazon(e) poisoning include sweating, hyperpyrexia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cough, tachypnea, dyspnea, apnea, tachycardia, mental change, neurological abnormalities including agitation, talking nonsense, and loss of consciousness, muscle rigidity, rigor mortis, and cardiac arrest (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45). Although bentazon(e) is known not to cross the bloodbrain barrier (BBB) in rats, neurological toxic signs and symptoms in acute bentazon(e) poisoning suggest that it may do so after consumption of large amounts.…”