Archive for the ‘Science and Technology’ Category

Importance of samples in Forensic Toxicology

Friday, August 1st, 2008

Study and use of forensic toxicology involves affects of the chemical elements and their agents on various parts of the human body. Therefore to find out the existence of such elements in human body various samples are taken out and examined by the experts who undertake such studies. These samples include urine, blood, hair sample, and other elements of your physique.

The task of the forensic toxicologist is to analyze these samples and find out the presence of exact amount of toxic elements in them. Urine for example is the quickest and easiest sample to get and is commonly used for drug and dope testing of athletes and employees. Detection is easy since use of substances like marijuana can be detected till 14 days from the date of use. The only problem is that the test is time consuming and it may take around eight hours of examination before the exact components are detected.

Just as in case of environmental toxicology you sometimes take the sample of fluids from the plants and trees, you can take blood samples from human beings and living bodies. It is quite easy to detect any toxic elements like the presence of alcohol when the blood sample of a drunk driver is taken.

However the expert toxicology studies do not depend only on urine and blood for tests. They also take hair sample and other components for such studies. Chemicals flowing in your bloodstream often get transferred to the growing hair and get stuck in the follicle and it provides a rough time line. The requirement however is that the expert should be a real one and not mere a claimant of non-existent expertise.