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Articles » Forensic Toxicology
Forensic Toxicology: Another Branch of an Important Science
Sang Mi Park
Toxicology is the study of substances, which are harmful to human beings. Toxicologists have the responsibility of detecting and identifying the presence of drugs and poisons in fluids, tissues and organs. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) is just one of the many ways in which a toxicological examination can be made. In this technique, a glass slide is coated with a gel, and ten small amounts of sample are dotted near the bottom of the slide. The slide is then placed in a liquid so that the level of liquid reaches just below the dots on the slide. Then though capillary action, the liquid climbs the slide separating the sample as it goes. The separation is usually colorless, so in order to see the results, the slide muse be exposed to UV light. Then, by comparing the results of the pattern that is created, we can match it up with the patterns of known samples of drugs or chemicals. By doing this, we can successfully identify many, many different types of substances in a person's body. This is just another step in forensic science, and just another way to confirm that this science is a very sophisticated one.
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http://www.lib.strath.ac.uk
/Forensic_net
Warner, Erica.
Forensic Science. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997
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