The application of chemistry, including its subfield forensic toxicology, in a legal setting: identifying, analyzing and interpreting drugs, toxins, accelerants and other unknown substances recovered from crime scenes or biological samples using analytical instrumentation.
Facts
What It ExaminesSourced to the subject's own accountDrugs, toxins, accelerants and unknown materials recovered from crime scenes or biological samples, identified and interpreted using analytical chemical instrumentation. 1 Formalized YearSourced to the subject's own accountDates to Mathieu Orfila's Traite des poisons (1813), which established chemical detection of poisons as a systematic discipline rather than guesswork. Known LimitationSourced to the subject's own accountSpectroscopic identification methods work well for common mixtures with known reference spectra on file, but a novel or unusual mixture can be difficult to resolve with confidence. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Forensic toxicology is treated as a subfield of forensic chemistry, sharing its analytical chemical methods.
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