MCV/Q, Medical College of Virginia Quarterly
Orginal Publication Date
1969
Journal Title
MCV/Q, Medical College of Virginia Quarterly
Volume
5
Issue
2
First Page
53
Last Page
55
Abstract
In Great Britain, until recently, domestic gas was made from coal and was always referred to as "coal gas." Today we are beginning to use natural gas, and the term coal gas is being replaced by "town gas." Most of the domestic supply, however, is still coal gas, which has a high though variable percentage of carbon monoxide (Mant, 1964). In any event it is always present in a highly lethal concentration. As coal gas is so readily available, it has been the most popular suicidal poison for many years, although the recent figures show that barbiturates are overtaking it in popularity. Nevertheless, out of the 5,000 odd suicides that occur annually in England and Wales, some two-fifths are due to coal gas poisoning. Perhaps even more alarming are the 1,000 odd persons each year who die from some form of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, usually due to the accidental release of coal gas.
Rights
© VCU. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 Acknowledgement of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives