Cigarette Ash in Relation to Forensic Science
TATAVARTY SUBBA RAoa ), RAI YASHPAL BHATIAb), MALVEY PRABHAKARa ) a) Department of' Botany, Osmania University, Hyderabad,SOO 007, India
b) Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Seetor 18, Chandigarh,160 018, India
Summary
The paper deals with the identification of ten different brands of cigarettes based on the ash analysis with the hclp of inductively coupled plasma atomic,emission spectroscopy. The importance of' the findings in relation to forensic science is discussed.
Key words: Ash, Cigarette, Forensic Science
INTRODUCTION
Physical evidence can be anything from massive to microscopic objects. According to Locard (I) "When a man commits a crime he always leaves at the scene that was not there before and carries away something that was not on him when he arrived". Hence search for physical evidences at the crime scene must be thorough and systematic.
Further it must be handled and processed in way that prevents any change taking place between the time it is received by the crime elaboratory. An innumerable physical evidences are usually available at the site of crime, cigarette, beedi or cigar stubs can be one among them. These can reveal the person(s) who visited the crime scene or link between the crime and the person visited (2). Length, diameter, alignment of letters and motif or the cigarettes were considered as an important characters for the identification of the brands (3). Sometimes the smokers are habituated to smoke to the extent where the lable of the brands is totally burnt or an intelligent criminal may not leave the stubs. However while smoking, the ash may fall on the floor or in the ash tray, which can be used in identification of the cigarette brand smoked (4-7). Hence presently an attempt has been made to identify ten brands of cigarettes to see the variation of chromium, cobalt, copper and zinc contents in the ash, characteristic of a given brand of cigarette.
MATERIAL and METHOD
Ten different brands of cigarettes were purchased local retail shops (Hyderabad, India). Three grams of each brand (including the paper but excluding the filter) was ashed at temp. of 800°C. Hundred mg of ash was dissolved in 50 ml 01' con. HCI and water (I :4). Quantitative analysis of chromium, cobalt, copper and zinc and was done using inductively coupled plasma atomic,emission spectroscopy ['ollowing Bhatia ct. al (4).
Adli TIp DerR., 8, 75,77 (1992)
ADL
İ TIP DERGİSİ
Journal of Forensic Medicine
76 TATAVARTY SUBBA RAO, RAI YASHPAL BHATIA, MALVEY PRABHAKAR
RESULTS and DSICUSSION
Quantitatively chromium, cobalt, copper and zinc varies from one brand of the cigarete to the other (Table I). The concentration of chromium varies from 0.0836 ppm as in Players to 0.1 132 ppm in Charminar. Cobalt concentration is more or less negligible in Gold Flake and Players (0.0039 ppm, 0.0078 ppm respectively), but a maximum of 0.0286 ppm is recorded in Golconda. Contrary to the cobalt, the copper shows highest concentration in Flair cigarette i.e. l.1100 ppm, while in rest of the brands the copper concentration varies form 0.2700 (in Golconda) to 0.5741 ppm (Chancellor). The concentration of zinc varies from 0.3189 ppm (in Scissors) to 0.6968 ppm (Flair). The variation of the elements in different brand were recorded to be constant and consistant.
Table I. Concentration of clements in different brands of cigarettes (pps).
Name of cigarette Chronium Cobalt Brands I. Chancellor 0.0907 0.0183 2. Charminar 0.1132 0.0100 (Non Filter) 3. Classic 01033 0.0208 4. Esquire 0.0916 0.0171 5. Flair 0.0998 0.0193 6. Golconda 0.0841 0.0286 7. Gold Flake 0.1010 0.0039 8. Players 0.0836 0.0078 9. Red wills 0.1019 0.0179 10. Scissors 0.0951 0.0213 Copper 0.5741 0.4051 0.5253 0.4012 l.IIOO 0.2700 0.4068 0.4280 0.3762 0.3810 Zinc 0.4446 0.4798 0.5338 0.4513 0.6968 0.3236 0.4570 0.6258 0.4692 0.3189
The quality of cigarettes manufactured depends on a number of factors like the colour, texture, and flavour of tobacco which in turn depend on chemical consitituents like alkaloids, nitrogenous compounds, polyphenols protiens, carbonyls, waxes and lipids (8-17). Besides these chemical factors the frequency of glandular trichomes are also considered as an important factor in determining the quality, aroma and taste of the cigarettes (18). Further it was observed that the different tobacco cultivars showed different concentration of certain elements (4,6,19) and concentration of these elements and other organic compounds mentioned above, which are genetically controlled (20-22).
The reason for a smoker to smoke a particular brand is his liking to the taste quality and the length of a particular brand of cigarette. It is a fact that different brands of cigarette have different qualities, which mainly depend on the variety of tobacco used into their preparation.
Cigarette Ash in Relation to Forensic Science 77
The variability of the elemental contents in different brands of cigarettes were consistant, hence it is considered to be significant in forensic science, especially when the cigarette or beedi stubs are burnt to the extent, that the lable is also burnt or when only ash in the ash try or on the floor or crime scene is available.
Acknowledgements:
The authors are thankful to Director, Yimta Labs. for making available the facilitic3. One of us (T.S.Rao) thanks to Bureau of Police Research and Development, New Delhi, India for providing financial assistance.
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