What does a Forensic Toxicologist Do?

Forensic Toxicologists are vital to both the legal and medical industries. They provide invaluable data on poisons for court cases and their knowledge can have a large part in determining the outcome of a case. In the medical field, forensic toxicologists often work for one of the hundred plus poison control centers in the US, or another government branch such as the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or Consumer Products Safety Commission.

In order to become certified as a forensic toxicologist, a candidate must first have a Ph.D. or a doctorate usually in biology or chemistry. Some states have exception clauses for those who have worked six or more years in the field. The American Board of Forensic Toxicology is responsible for bestowing certification which is valid for three years. Forensic toxicologists earn the title "Diplomate" after they are certified. A certified forensic toxicologist will have a much easier time qualifying to be an expert witness for court cases if necessary.

If a forensic toxicologist’s services are required for legal matters, he is normally given preserved samples of body fluids, stomach contents, and organ parts to test. He will also be able to access the coroner’s report which will tell him about the signs and symptoms the coroner observed postmortem. Since few substances leave a body unaltered, a forensic toxicologist must have a thorough knowledge of how the body metabolizes drugs. First, the toxicologist will carry out a basic acid-base test to extract the drug from the tissue or fluid. Nearly every drug is either an acid or a base; acid drugs are extracted with a lower pH solution and base drugs are extracted with a higher pH solution.

Next, the extracted drug sample is screened to determine what kind of drug it is and then a confirmation test is done to double check the accuracy of the screen test. An example of a screen test is a chemical spot test. This is where the drug sample is treated with a chemical reagent to produce a color change. The confirmation test is usually a mass spectrometry test which identifies the drug’s unique mass spectra "fingerprint". Drug overdose and alcoholic poisonings are the most common causes for a forensic toxicologist to be involved in a legal case. Typically, the toxicologist is not required to give his opinion of whether the toxic levels in the body were enough to kill a person. However, the exacting scientific testing a forensic toxicologist must perform is extremely important to the outcome of court cases.

Dr. Nachman Brautbar is a board-certified internist and nephrologist, with a specialization in toxicology. He specializes in the toxicological and internal medicine aspects of injury in the workplace, product liability, personal injury, standard of care. To find out more, please visit http://www.environmentaldiseases.com.