Volatiles Screening & Confirmation

Accurate measurement of volatile substances and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is a critical component of forensic toxicology, especially in impaired-driving investigations. While breath testing provides rapid roadside screening, laboratory analysis of biological specimens provides the analytical specificity needed for definitive BAC determination. Headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC) with flame ionization detection (FID) remains the most widely used approach to reliably measure ethanol and other volatile substances in the laboratory. Shimadzu offers innovative GC solutions designed to streamline volatile analysis while delivering the precision, reproducibility, and confidence forensic laboratories demand.

Analytical Techniques: GC, GC-MS

Every day in America, 29 people die in drunk driving accidents …according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To prevent future incidents and ensure appropriate legal action is taken, forensic laboratories must be able to effectively analyze ethanol in blood samples. One of the most widely used methods is blood alcohol testing. 2 Using blood alcohol testing, forensic toxicologists can determine the amount of alcohol that is in a person’s blood at the time the sample is taken. However, without the right instrumentation, performing this type of analysis can be time-consuming and challenging.

The GC/MS Forensic Toxicological Database contains information for the simultaneous screening of toxicological substances including drugs of abuse, psychotropic drugs, medical drugs and pesticides. Version 2 adds 1198 compounds to the previous version for a total of 2210 compounds in the database. It also includes optimized methods for headspace analysis of alcohol and volatile toxic substances such as cyanides and azides, providing total support for GC/MS toxicology analysis.

For many forensic laboratories, there is a need for a simpler, faster and more effective way to conduct analysis. These labs face the challenge of delivering accurate results for an increasing number of samples. To improve productivity and confidence in results, they need more advanced instrumentation and software solutions designed specifically for forensic analysis. Shimadzu’s Smart Forensic Database helps you easily and automatically create multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) methods for GC-MS/MS toxicological analysis.