§ Mr. WatsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he has evaluated on chromatography tests for traces of explosives in human hair. [166844]
§ Mr. BlunkettA preliminary study into the recovery of explosive traces from the surface of human hair was carried out by the Forensic Explosives Laboratory, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory on behalf of the Home Office.
Subsequent research into the analysis of explosive traces extracted from human hair was carried out and included evaluation by gas chromatographic techniques. This work was published by Sanders et al in Science and Justice vol. 42, No. 3 (2002) pp137–142. I will send a copy to my hon. Friend.