The influence of intra-personal variations in human hand odor on the determination of sample donor

• Published in: Forensic science international Vol. 334; p. 111235
• Main Authors: Gokool, Vidia A., Holness, Howard K., Furton, Kenneth G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.05.2022; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Chromatography; Cotton; Donations; Forensic Identification; Forensic sciences; Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS); Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods; Hand; Hand Odor; Headspace- Solid Phase Microextraction (HS-SPME); Humans; Mass spectrometry; Odor; Odorants - analysis; Odors; Sampling; Scientific imaging; Solid phase methods; Solid Phase Microextraction; Specimen Handling; Time dependence; Trace Vapor Analysis; Variability; Variation; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs); Volatile Organic Compounds - analysis; United States > US; Maine; GC-MS; Hand Odor; Forensic Identification; HS-SPME; SRC; Headspace- Solid Phase Microextraction (HS-SPME); Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs); SRCC; VOC; Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS); Trace Vapor Analysis
• ISSN: 0379-0738; 1872-6283; 1872-6283
• DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111235

•Human scent is an individualizing characteristic.•An individual’s human scent varies from day to day.•Pattern recognition models can be used to associate human scent samples to a donor.•The intra-subject variability of human scent affects source origin determination. A dual effort investigation was conducted to study (a) the naturally occurring variation in same-donor human hand odor samples over time and (b) the accuracy in associating same-donor human hand odor samples. Hand odor samples were collected from 8 donors throughout 5 sampling sessions; samples were collected in triplicate and analyzed by HS-SPME-GC-MS at each sampling session. The resulting human hand odor profiles were analyzed to investigate (a) the variability of human hand odor profiles as a function of time and (b) the ability to determine the source origin of human hand odor samples, determining samples to be from the same source or different sources. The researchers observed greater variation in 2-dimensional human scent profile patterning schemes among inter-day, inter-subject samples and less variation in inter-day, intra-subject samples. Although intra-subject samples revealed less variation than inter-subject samples, there was still notable variability among inter-day, intra-subject human scent profiles, with an observed time dependency. Two proof of concept models for the source determination of human hand odor samples were developed with maximum performance measuring TPR = 0.817/ FPR = 0.308 and TPR = 1.000/ FPR = 0.206 for models one and two, respectively. The study quantified same-donor human hand odor profile variation over time displayed within a larger goal of determining sample source origin.