Transfer of fibres on the hands of living subjects and their persistence during hand washing

Abstract

Textile fibres were transferred to the hands often living subjects and their persistence was determined after hand washing. Average number of fibres transferred was 300 +/- 133 (female 288 +/- 92, male 311 +/- 163) per 100 cm(2) hand area in the 100 experiments. However the number of fibres transferred was not gender dependent but individual dependent. The hand texture of subjects was compared with the number of fibres transferred but the relationship was not observed. The number of fibres transferred varied significantly for the 10 repeated experiments performed under the same conditions for the same subject. The subjects were then asked to wash their hands with water. One test group washed their hands with standing water, and the other with running tap water. Afterwards, the number of fibres remaining on the test subjects' hands were investigated. Migration of the fibres on the surface of the observed hands did occur but total loss of transferred fibre after hand washing did not occur. The average number of fibres remaining per 100 cm2 hand area was 14 +/- 10 (range = 3-72) for hand washing with standing water, and 10 +/- 12 (range = 0-79) for washing with running tap water. The results of this study show the possibility of finding fibres on the hands of a person involved in a criminal case even after hand washing before fibre collection. (C) 2014 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.