Dogs can detect traces of gasoline down to one billionth of a teaspoon

4 years ago
Anonymous $-9GJQVHNr8

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200512151943.htm

"During an arson investigation, a dog may be used to identify debris that contains traces of ignitable liquids -- which could support a hypothesis that a fire was the result of arson," explained Robin Abel, graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and lead author of the study. "Of course, a dog cannot give testimony in court, so debris from where the dog indicated must be taken back to the laboratory and analyzed. This estimate provides a target for forensic labs when processing evidence flagged by detection dogs at sites of potential arson."

The study involved two dog-and-handler teams. The first was trained to detect a variety of ignitable liquids, while the other was trained primarily with gasoline. Results show that the dog trained on a variety of liquids performed well detecting all accelerants, while the dog trained on gasoline was not able to generalize to other accelerants at extremely low concentrations.

Dogs can detect traces of gasoline down to one billionth of a teaspoon

May 12, 2020, 9:28pm UTC
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200512151943.htm > "During an arson investigation, a dog may be used to identify debris that contains traces of ignitable liquids -- which could support a hypothesis that a fire was the result of arson," explained Robin Abel, graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and lead author of the study. "Of course, a dog cannot give testimony in court, so debris from where the dog indicated must be taken back to the laboratory and analyzed. This estimate provides a target for forensic labs when processing evidence flagged by detection dogs at sites of potential arson." > The study involved two dog-and-handler teams. The first was trained to detect a variety of ignitable liquids, while the other was trained primarily with gasoline. Results show that the dog trained on a variety of liquids performed well detecting all accelerants, while the dog trained on gasoline was not able to generalize to other accelerants at extremely low concentrations.