MOTIVE, OPPORTUNITY, INTENT
As I start to put this to paper, I am concerned about my wife’s well being and my own incarceration. Erin’s mysterious and unexplained poisoning death could be bad for both of us. For her obviously, me possibly.
MOTIVE
When the police believe there has been a murder, they always suspect the partner or spouse first. They know most couples have motive for murder, money, relatives, casually discarded laundry and Häagen-Dazs equity, just to name a few.
OPPORTUNITY
Investigators will then try to determine if the suspect had an opportunity. I spend every minute of every day with my wife, unless she is at work, food shopping, cooking, cleaning, cutting grass, taking care of her mother and father or doing any other physical labor on our log cabin farmhouse and its manicured acres of fields, trails, streams, meadows, ponds and outbuildings.
INTENT
As any homicide detective worth their gold shield knows a good frame up requires proof of the suspects intent. See, my problem is that recently I have been researching poisons on the internet.
OK, I did plan to use one or two of them, as examples in this blog about problems with Toxic or Poisonous materials under the 49 CFR Department of Transportation (DOT), Section 173.132 Division 6.1 Toxic and 29 CFR Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Appendix A to Section 1910.1200 Health Hazards. Poisons fascinate me. Not in a macabre way. What I find so interesting about poisons, is the amount of certain mixtures containing poison, that would have to be ingested, before they would likely kill you.
Depending on who’s Safety Data Sheet (SDS) you believe, caffeine could be shipped as a 6.1 Poison. For the average person 10 grams of caffeine is lethal. Then if you consider the average cup of coffee has about 100 mg of caffeine, not being a mathematician or murderer, I believe you would have to drink approximately 75 to 100 cups of coffee before you would reach its LD50 or lethal dose. That's a lot of cream and sugar!
I say likely because LD50’s are based on only 50% of the test animals dying within 14 days, not all of them. I’m sure the other 50% of the test animals, quote “the 15 day survivors”, are not going to be doing real well, nor do I believe that anyone is standing by to Medevac them to the nearest veterinary hospital. They all die.
It is not uncommon for some mixtures of poisons, that testers find that they cannot introduce enough of the mixture into the test animal's digestive system, without killing them, to complete the actual test for poison.
So, here is the key when identifying Poison or Toxic Division 6.1 materials under DOT. Pure chemicals have already been tested, so they shouldn’t be retested. Mixtures of poisons must be tested or shippers are authorized to use mathematical formulas and concentrations, outlined in 49 CFR Paragraph 173.132(c).
I say caffeine could be shipped as a poison, as some SDSs state it is a poison and others say it’s not. SDSs are not reliable when shipping DOT hazardous materials because OSHA does not require testing, only available information, as stated at the start of Appendix A to 1910.1200 Hazard Communication for completion of Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
I’m not sure if this is a really good blog. But, it does make a pretty convincing alibi. Just remember you also have “motive”, by law, to attend a Hazardous Materials, Substances and Wastes Compliance Seminar and the “opportunity”, as our 2022 / 2023 Live Online Training Seminars start up again in 2 weeks. So sign up now, than at the very least you can show your “intent” was to comply.
The new copies of the 2022 / 2023 Hazardous Materials, Substances and Wastes Compliance Guide will start shipping at the end of September. Don’t wait to get your copy, order now!
Robert J Keegan
Publisher and President
Hazardous Materials Publishing Company
Transportation Skills Programs Inc.
Text 610-587-3978
