The Forensic Toxicology Section provides analytical services in medicolegal death investigations (postmortem analysis), driving while intoxicated (DWI) by alcohol and/or drugs, and investigations to support medical examiners, law enforcement agencies, the justice system, and other customers.
Laboratory staff apply a wide variety of state-of-the-art instrumental techniques in the course of their casework to include:
Headspace Gas Chromatography – Flame Ionization Detection (Headspace GC/FID) – Detects ethanol and other volatile substances
Liquid Chromatography – Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (LC/TOF-MS) – Screens for routine and novel drugs of abuse
Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) – Screens, confirms and quantifies drugs and their metabolites
