Electron Microscopy in Forensic, Occupational, and Environmental Health Sciences

Forensic, Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences are identification sciences dealing with criminal and delicate societal problems for which scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive x-rays (EDAX) and analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are providing increasingly definitive solutions. This is particularly true in the area of particulates. However, electron microscopists working independently in these three related fields are often called upon to identify particulates which have been well characterized by microscopists in one of the other fields of study. Exchange of information on particulate identification and techniques for analyzing new unusual samples has been difficult between the three disciplines. For example, automated search and identification of particulates has become a standard procedure in environmental and occupational health. The procedure, however, has yet to find its way into forensic laboratories for analysis of gunshot residue particles. This volume represents a beginning for collaboration and exchange of ideas between such areas of study with diverse interests but similar analytical problems. It is virtually certain that this effort will also interest other electron microscopists in some novel scientific problems with criminal and societal relevance. The volume presents full-length articles of several invited speakers and participants at the "Forensic, Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences" Symposium held as a part of the EMSA-MAS Joint Annual Meeting, 5-9 August 1985, Louisville, Kentucky. Extended 2-4 page abstracts of these presentations have been published in the EMSA Proceedings (1985).