Appendix M

Explosive Residue Swab Kit Instructions

This kit is for the collection of organic or inorganic explosive residue at a post-blast crime scene or search from items or surfaces too large to submit to a laboratory. The best areas to swab are smooth nonporous surfaces such as metal, glass, painted wood, stone, or plastic. For post-blast crime scenes select surfaces facing the explosion. Step 1: Remove the kit from the sealed box. You should have the following packages of sealed items: Bag 1: Two pairs of nonpowdered latex gloves with alcohol wipe packets attached. Bag 2: One Tyvek jumpsuit (with booties and hood) and two pairs of nonpowdered nitrile gloves. Bag 3: One folded length of brown paper (with attached two-sided tape), one ballpoint pen, and one black marking pen. Bag 4: Control swab supplies bottle labels, two disposable forceps, zip-top bag, and lengths of evidence tape. Bag 5: Sampling bottles two packs/ten glass bottles each containing one cotton swab, two disposable forceps, two zip-top bags for collected samples, bottle labels, and lengths of evidence tape. Control swabs may be taken from either ten pack as needed. Bag 6: One 4-oz glass jar containing additional sterile cotton balls.

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Step 2: Remove all watches, rings, etc. Sharp edges could puncture the nitrile gloves. If possible, take off jackets and roll up your sleeves. Proceed to clean your hands using the alcohol wipes attached in Bag 1. Step 3: Open Bag 1. Avoiding contact with any other part of your body and/or clothing, put on the nitrile gloves. Step 4: Open Bag 2. Put on the white Tyvek jumpsuit over your clothing. From Bag 2, put on the other pair of nitrile gloves. Put the gloves on over the rst pair or replace the rst pair with the new gloves.

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Step 5: Select a location to stage your swabbing supplies to provide a clean work surface. Ideally, it should not be too far away from where you will be taking your swab samples. Open Bag 3. Remove the folded square of brown paper and place it on a at work surface. Remove the stickyside tape protectors. Step 6: Open Bag 4. Take control swabs of yourself and the work surface using the following procedures: Select a vial with cotton swab from a ten-pack. Using one pair of disposable forceps, remove a cotton ball from a bottle. Rub this swab over your gloved hands, abdominal area, and the sleeves of your Tyvek suit. Place this cotton swab back in the same bottle and screw the cap on. Write the documentation on a label and apply it to the bottle indicating suit/glove control. Using the black marking pen, mark the evidence tape. Ensure your initials overlap the evidence tape. This is now a control swab. Label should include: initials of the person swabbing, date, le number, or site identier. Using the second pair of forceps, remove the cotton swab from the second bottle. Rub this swab over the brown paper work surface. Repeat the bottle capping and label documentation indicating work surface control. Seal the bottle with evidence tape as above. This is the second control swab. Additional control samples can be taken if deemed appropriate. One bottle may be submitted as a control sample without opening it. Do not reuse these forceps for actual sampling.

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Step 7: Ensure each control swab bottle is properly and accurately labeled, initialed, and then sealed with evidence tape. Warning: The evidence tape will be difcult to apply wearing gloves.

Step 8: Place all used control swab bottles into the evidence zip-top bag. Complete the needed documentation on the evidence label. Mark the label as control sample. Attach the label to the evidence bag. Seal this bag with evidence tape. Initial the evidence bag, overlapping the evidence tape seal. Put this evidence bag aside away from the sampling swabs bottles. Step 9: Open Bag 5 and remove the rest of the contents. Open the smaller bag containing the two forceps. Using one pair of forceps, open one bottle and remove the cotton swab. With the cotton swab, rmly rub the suspect surface. A circular rubbing motion is recommended. Return that cotton swab into the bottle, cap and seal the bottle with evidence tape. Number and record the descriptive data on the provided label as you did on the control sample bottle. An extra pair of forceps is provided if needed. Additional sterile cotton swabs are in a separate jar (Bag 6) should they be needed. Repeat this process, bottle by bottle, cotton swab by cotton swab, for each suspect surface. Complete each bottle before opening another. Record the documentation on each bottle label. Seal and initial the evidence tape on each. Step 10: After swabbing the suspect surfaces, review each bottle to ensure it is properly labeled, initialed, and sealed. Place the sampling bottles used in a zip-top evidence bag. Complete the evidence label; attach it to the bag, and then seal and initial the evidence tape.
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Notes: Do not use any of the remaining items in this kit for evidence collection purposes. They may be contaminated. Properly dispose of all remaining kit items. Use a kit for each single explosion. Different explosives could have been used in multiple explosions.

2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC