This thread got me wondering why analysis of breathing gas from a diving accident isn't routinely sent to a lab for a full spectrum gas chromatograph analysis.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-and-incidents/500144-article-death-ginnie-springs.html
I didn't want to hijack the thread so started this one in a more appropriate forum. Apparently, the convention in some/many jurisdictions is to send dive gear to a local expert like a dive shop or instructor to evaluate.
You don't have to be a pathologist to know that there are lots of gasses beyond CO and O2 that a nefarious person could contaminate a diver's breathing gas with. Some of these gasses can be in very small amounts and dissipate in the body/corpse quickly. I suppose that applies to firefighters as well, though hard to target an individual.
I'm not a gas chromatograph tech but they are pretty common in labs and it wasn't that expensive when I have had calibration gasses certified by the suppliers. In that case we only asked for the gasses we ordered so but, perhaps mistakenly, I thought that the analysis covered the full spectrum of gasses.
Am I missing something or is there a better testing methodology?
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-and-incidents/500144-article-death-ginnie-springs.html
I didn't want to hijack the thread so started this one in a more appropriate forum. Apparently, the convention in some/many jurisdictions is to send dive gear to a local expert like a dive shop or instructor to evaluate.
You don't have to be a pathologist to know that there are lots of gasses beyond CO and O2 that a nefarious person could contaminate a diver's breathing gas with. Some of these gasses can be in very small amounts and dissipate in the body/corpse quickly. I suppose that applies to firefighters as well, though hard to target an individual.
I'm not a gas chromatograph tech but they are pretty common in labs and it wasn't that expensive when I have had calibration gasses certified by the suppliers. In that case we only asked for the gasses we ordered so but, perhaps mistakenly, I thought that the analysis covered the full spectrum of gasses.
Am I missing something or is there a better testing methodology?