Can "contamination" occur in body bags?-The example of background fibres in body bags used in Australia.

Impurities that are transferred to a crime scene or a body can have a significant negative impact on the investigation if the existence of the contamination is not known, and the source of the contamination is not identified. Forensic consumables, such as DNA swabs, have been known to have caused contaminations, wrongfully linking crimes throughout Europe. In that context, this study focused on body bags, widely used to transfer a corpse from the crime scene to the morgue. Our preliminary survey showed that several countries and Australian Jurisdictions are conducting the sampling of trace evidence at the morgue after the transportation of the body. Potential impurities present in body bags could thus interfere with pertinent traces. The aim of this work was to qualify and quantify the background contamination of trace evidence in body bags used within Australia. Fifteen body bags from four Australian Jurisdictions or laboratories were searched for micro traces. Impurities such as fibres and unidentified particles were detected in each examined body bag, with an estimated average of 3603 coloured fibres and 1429 unidentified particles. This number of fibres is similar to the amount found on a vinyl cinema seat in other studies. Various other contaminants such as pieces of fabric, hairs, parts of insects or feathers were also observed. It is hypothesised that these impurities are introduced during the manufacturing process. This high number of impurities can lead to incorrect conclusions and misleading investigative leads. This paper presents an overview of the problems these impurities can cause and proposes several strategies to prevent future issues.

A survey of glass found on the headwear and head hair of a random population vs. people working with glass.

This study investigated the prevalence of glass particles on the headwear and head hair of two different population groups; the general public who do not work with glass, and glaziers from O'Brien(®) Glass Industries who work with glass and have regular contact with broken glass. The 232 samples collected from the head hair and headwear from the random population resulted in the recovery of 6 glass fragments in total on 6 individuals (i.e. one fragment each). All of these fragments were from head hair samples with no multiple fragments recovered. The two headwear samples that were taken revealed no fragments. These results were in contrast to the survey that was conducted on the head hair and headwear of 25 glaziers from O'Brien(®), in which 138 glass fragments were found in total on 24 of the 25 glaziers. The size and number of fragments found in each sample were also generally larger for the glaziers group. The results from this study indicate that the prevalence of glass on the head hair and head wear of the random population is very low in comparison to the head hair and headwear of those who have regular contact with breaking glass. The significance of this finding with respect to the interpretation of glass evidence is also discussed.