Talk:Forensic toxicology

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There was and still is some factual errors on this page. I will try to continue the edit some times soon.Mia Legato 20:52, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Contents 1 WikiProject class rating 2 Samples 3 Hair Analysis 4 Stomach contents 5 Detection and Classification

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Samples

I don't think it's appropriate for the "Samples" section to include the phrase "influenced by." Forensic toxicologists are not (or, rather should not be) in the business of determining if a person is "under the influence" of a drug. It is a common misconception that forensic toxicologists, like forensic alcohol examiners, are able to correlate a blood level of drug to a degree of impairment, and this wording seems to further that misconception. What do you all think? --206.194.127.112 (talk) 23:21, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hair Analysis

I admit I've never heard of hair anaylsis being used to estimate timeline of ingestion. Perhaps a source should be included for this, as I had always been under the impression that hair was only used as a last resort to determine if someone ingested a drug at all in the last X months. --206.194.127.112 (talk) 23:26, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Stomach contents

There is disagreement in paragraphs 2 and 3 of "other" regarding the ability to use stomach contents to establish time of death. Also, I'm not sure if this is realy appropriate in a discussion of toxicology as it seems more suited to a discussion of autopsy procedures in general. --206.194.127.112 (talk) 23:30, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Detection and Classification

I made a few edits to this section, including deletion of the following sentence that was very difficult to understand: Substances as such (powders, pills and liquids) have a much higher concentration and toxicology is aimed at finding what compounds constitutes the sample and at what concentrations. I wasn't sure what the writer was getting at with that sentence.

Also, I am confused by the "nonvolatile" section where it lists gas-liquid chromatography as a screening method. If a substance is nonvolatile, doesn't that preclude using GC? Perhaps that section needs an edit as well, but I'm not qualified to do so since I'm not experienced in analysis of nonvolatile compounds. Also, many of the chemical tests desribed in this section are not strictly toxicology, since they involve usable quantities of a substance, rather than the amounts found in toxicological specimens --206.194.127.112 (talk) 23:41, 14 May 2008 (UTC)