Standard procedure at chemical accident site to ensure protection of evidence

Highlights
- If we want to find someone guilty of violating the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention or CWC), we should prove the involvement of specific persons, whose DNA can be identified using biological traces left at the chemical accident site.
- Decontaminant mixtures, used at the chemical accident site can destroy the DNA and that makes genotyping impossible.
- The authors have elaborated special procedure that permits to preserve biological traces at the chemical accident site for further forensic analysis.
Relevance. It is crucial to provide objective evidence against persons who are involved in chemical accidents. The only way is to make a DNA assay of biological traces left at chemical accident site. That is why we should keep these traces intact and preserve their integrity.
Purpose of the study is to provide a scientific justification for the standard procedure that ensures protection of evidence at chemical accident site.
Study base sources. The authors have studied scientific publications including those, available on the Internet.
Method. Analytical method has been employed.
Results. The authors of this paper have outlined the forensic significance of biological traces with DNA at the chemical accident site. They have evaluated the risks of the DNA data loss, when the site is exposed to decontaminant agents. It has been proved that chlorine containing reagents destroy the DNA, whereas mixtures that contain magnesium oxide, titanium oxide, 2-aminoethanol and calcium hypochlorite are safe for the DNA. The authors of this paper have developed a procedure that permits either to collect biomaterial before decontamination or to use mixtures that are harmless to the DNA.
Conclusion. To preserve evidence for further forensic analysis it is vital to avoid using decontaminants that may destroy the DNA. In this case the neutral mixtures should be used.

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