I was attending and presenting at the 2017 International Association Arson Investigations (IAAI) Conference in Las Vegas in April. My four hour presentation covered many aspects of legal sampling and chain of custody as well as providing a fundamental description of laboratory analysis of ignitable liquid residues...
2DGC: Why You Need to Know about this Niche Analytical Technique
You may have heard about an analytical technique called 2DGC or Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography. Or perhaps you have not.
Can Statistical Sampling Give You Better Data & Save You Money?
Sampling can easily run up the costs of an investigation. As expert chemists, it's our responsibility to balance cost with collecting the proper number of samples for our clients.
2016 Round Up
2016 has been an exciting year. Chemistry Matters tackled many new challenges: from hosting the plenary at the INEF conference in Sweden to handling investigations here at home.
Understand the "Why" before Collecting a Sample
Just Grab a Sample? Wait! Not so fast!
Unfortunately, I hear the words "just grab a sample" too often in my line of work.
6 Ideas to Make a Flawless Transfer of Chain of Custody to the Lab
Imagine This...
You have just finished a very large field program. You must have collected nearly 100 samples, all different matrices (water, soil, sediment, product samples), and multiple analyses are needed. You have COCs (chain of custody forms) filled out for everything, and you are driving over to the laboratory...
The Highlights and Summary of Dioxin Conference 2016
This past week, I was able to attend the Dioxin conference in Florence, Italy. The conference is 36 years old, and it was started for the topic of Dioxins. Over the years, the conference has expanded to cover many more contaminants, but today, it mostly covers everything on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
5 Outlooks for Environmental Forensics – Conclusion: Solving the Issue of Data Handling
This is the conclusion of the blog series on 5 outlooks of Environmental Forensics.
5 Outlooks for Environmental Forensics - Part Five: Presenting Results with Powerful Visuals
This is part 5 of the blog series on the 5 outlooks of Environmental Forensics.
5 Outlooks for Environmental Forensics - Part Four: Communicate Science Clearly & With Certainty
This is part 4 of the blog series on the 5 outlooks of Environmental Forensics.