If you have ever seen me lecture before, you know that one of my themes is the need fro greater education and training in the laboratory for analysts. For years, I have been talking about the “oral tradition” method of training that goes on at forensic laboratories wherein the last person to push the button […]
A “Redo” Book! Are you serious?!?!?! More on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Laboratory
Forensic scientists make mistakes. At the end of the day, they are human. But in criminal law and forensic science or just plain old science in general, you have to report out and document your errors. Apparently, this major legal lesson and scientific precept was lost on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment […]
Breaking News: Crisis at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
On June 7, 2013, the Attorney General of Colorado in an unprecedented move released the findings of a report into the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and blood ethanol testing. It paints a very grim picture of undereducated, undertrained and unsupervised work. You can read the full report here. Later this week, we […]
Chemical Measurement Process and The Calibration Function: How to best calibrate an instrument used in forensic science
The technical goal of any calibration related effort is t0 achieve a meaningful and valid CMP. According to The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC): Chemical Measurement Process (CMP): An analytical method of defined structure that has been brought into a state of statistical control, such that its imprecision and bias are fixed, […]
Retention of Biological Samples: In a DUI case, how long is long enough?
Suppose the following: You are driving home. You get stopped by the police. You are arrested for DUI. You are requested and give a sample of your blood. The blood goes to a laboratory and is analyzed. The results get transmitted to the police a few days later. The police type it up a few […]
The importance of calibration in forensic science
The act of calibration is the imperfect scientific action that underlies the validity of the subsequent testing of unknowns. A scientific and properly conducted valid calibration action can possibly yield a valid result. A poor and improperly conducted calibration action will always result in non-validated results and maybe even invalid results. Even within batch calibration […]
In chromatography, you see what they want you to see: Get the Electronic Data Files
In chromatography, you see what they want you to see: Get the Electronic Data Files By: Justin J. McShane, JD, F-AIC and Josh D. Lee, JD What evil lies in the heart of man? The Shadow knows… What evil may lie in the heart of chromatographers? The Electronic Data Files (EDF) know… In courtrooms all […]
Integration and the need for electronic data files
Boss Tweed (pictured below) was a notorious political crime boss in New York. He had a quote that was attributed to him: “Remember the first rule of politics. The ballots don’t make the results, the counters make the results. The counters – keep counting.” This is also true in chromatography. We have written in this […]
Doughnuts and Blood Testing – How the government’s own data often proves that they contaminate blood samples and look the other way
The Colorado Springs Independent recently published an article about laboratory concerns within the Colorado State crime laboratory system. The article written by Chet Hardin was called “Blood and circus: Why many DUI lawyers don’t trust the state’s drug lab.” One of the issues discussed was the problem of ethanol being detected in blanks. The governments position of […]
Another thought about t0-olympic style
We have blogged before about t0 and the importance of knowing when it is in terms of retention time when we go to evaluate forensic chromatography results. You can read it again here: The importance of t0 in forensic chromatography T0 (provided that the area reject-think of how Josh made those peaks disappear in front […]
Where is the commutability?
Commutability is the hallmark of all measurement science and is particularly important in analytical chemistry at large. Commutability is the feature of being comparable across borders and universal over all time. Using appropriate and traceable standards/reference materials during calibration combined with using validated and standardized methods provides for commutability. Since the mid 1980s, the Environmental […]
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