What is it about?
This article shows that gunshot residue (GSR) particles are obscured from detection by the blocking or attenuation of backscatter electrons in the scanning electron microscope by exfoliated skin cells and skin oils.
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Why is it important?
Missed GSR particles in an analysis in the SEM likely affects determination of whether or not a suspect has had a significant exposure (> 3 characteristic GSR particle) to GSR.
Perspectives
Criminalists apparently ignore the scientific literature and do not realize that they likely can improve GSR particle detection by implementing the cleaning technique suggested in the paper. There appear to be no follow up papers as yet that test the procedure on field samples (as of August 2018).
Bryan Burnett
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Effect of Skin Debris on Gunshot Residue Sampling and Detection, Journal of Forensic Sciences, July 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/1556-4029.13149.
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