CHAPTER 1 Forensic Environmental Chemistry

Summary Forensic environmental chemistry involves the use of trace chemical techniques for investigating environmental spills in an effort to determine civil or criminal liability. The field can be broken down into two broad areas based on the techniques used to determine liability: chemical fingerprinting and spatial association. In chemical fingerprinting, complex mixtures of chemicals or chemical isotopes are used to associate a spill or environmental release with a source. In spatial association, geographical information systems and geochemical techniques are used to attribute the location of a contaminant with a possible source in physica