Birky M M, Voorhees K J
National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC 20594.
Aviat Space Environ Med. 1989 Oct;60(10 Pt 2):B72-7.
Traditionally, carboxyhemoglobin analysis has been used to determine the extent of respiration during a postcrash fire. This is a useful and informative measurement, but advances in the chemical analysis of soot samples provide a new and useful forensic tool for the investigation of deaths by fire. One of the latest analytical techniques is a computer-interfaced pyrolysis mass spectrometry. Soot consists of a high percentage of carbon as well as fragments of the original polymer that are unique to that particular material. Consequently, analysis and identification of the fragment pattern makes it possible to identify the original material from which the soot was generated. In pyrolysis mass spectrometry the soot is pyrolyzed into the ion source and the resulting ion pattern is computer analyzed to identify the polymeric system or systems that generated the soot. Analysis of soot samples collected from the upper respiratory tract of aircraft accident victims and from the accident scene can provide information on the type of toxic insult (identifies specific toxic products), the material(s) that burned and generated the toxic atmosphere, and the relative time of survival following the crash. This technique has been applied to the investigation of fire deaths in a hotel fire and will be used to illustrate the identification of the materials that burned, the toxic products, and the potential for aircraft accident investigations.
传统上，碳氧血红蛋白分析一直被用于确定坠机后起火时的呼吸程度。这是一项有用且信息丰富的测量方法，但烟尘样本化学分析的进展为火灾死亡调查提供了一种新的、有用的法医工具。最新的分析技术之一是计算机接口热解质谱法。烟尘中含有高比例的碳以及特定材料所特有的原始聚合物碎片。因此，对碎片模式进行分析和识别能够确定产生烟尘的原始材料。在热解质谱法中，烟尘被热解进离子源，然后对产生的离子模式进行计算机分析，以识别产生烟尘的一个或多个聚合物体系。对从飞机事故遇难者上呼吸道以及事故现场采集的烟尘样本进行分析，可以提供有关中毒类型（识别特定有毒产物）、燃烧并产生有毒大气的材料以及坠机后相对存活时间的信息。这项技术已应用于一起酒店火灾中的火灾死亡调查，并将用于说明对燃烧材料、有毒产物的识别以及在飞机事故调查中的应用潜力。
