Friday, October 30, 2015

HETL chemist presents paper at national meeting

Jamie Foss, Chemist II with the Forensic Chemistry Section at Maine CDC's Health and Environmental Testing Lab (HETL), recently presented a paper  at the Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientist’s Annual Meeting on his research related to the analysis of drugs by Time of Flight (TOF) Mass Spectroscopy.

Maine has seen an increase in heroin use and overdose over the past three years, resulting in an increase in heroin samples submitted to the lab for identification. To meet this challenge, HETL has been working with Perkin Elmer Health Sciences to beta-test their direct sample analysis. The sensitivity and quality of the data generated by this instrument, allows HETL to rapidly identify drugs and help its partners gain a better understanding of the types of drugs encountered on the streets as well as improve analysis turn-around time needed to meet the demands of the judicial system.