Mudassir Shafiq, Faran Maqbool, Arshad Iqbal, Haider Zaigham Baqai.
"Kala Pathar" Poisoning.
J Rawal Med Coll Jan ;19(1):98-9.

In the developing world, suicide was responsible for about 600,000 deaths in the 1990`s. 1 It is the third leading cause of death in 15-44 years age group. In the past 50 years, suicide rates have increased to 60%.2 The preferred means of suicide is poisoning. Pesticides ingestion or skin exposure is the commonest poisoning in the developing countries. Paraphenylene Diamine(PPD) poisoning is emerging as an important way of intentional self harm in many developing countries of Africa and Asia.3 PPD is an active ingredient of ‘Kala Pathar`.PPD along with a mixture of other chemicals(Kala Pathar, Paraffin, diamond etc) is the constituent of various hair dyes. PPD exerts its highly toxic effects on the muscular, respiratory, hepatic, renal and cardiac systems by inhibiting cellular oxidation.

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