What Should Forensic Labs Be Using for Blood Alcohol Testing?

Headspace injection combined with dual column GC-FID is a widely used technique for measuring blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in forensic laboratories. Given the serious implications of BAC test results, ensuring accurate and reliable measurements is crucial. Therefore, it's essential to have the right tools to achieve these outcomes. Below, we highlight a few recommended products for laboratories conducting BAC analysis.

The GC Column

Column choice plays a major role in data quality and reliability produce symmetrical peaks. Restek’s Rtx-BAC Plus 1 and Rtx-BAC Plus 2 columns have optimized column selectivities, which result in optimized resolution of all target compounds, as well as the retention time and elution order changes necessary for confirmation. The Restek columns have outperformed other blood alcohol column pairs by fully separating target compounds, providing excellent peak symmetry, and reducing peak tailing in comparison to other columns tested. All columns are tested for maximum quality to ensure your results are accurate and reliable.

Other Consumables and Replacement Parts

Keep in mind, we are a stocking distributor for many of the industry’s top brands of chromatography consumables and replacement parts. We offer competitive pricing on headspace vials. Whether you’re looking for Agilent vials, or an alternative option, we have you covered. We keep pallets of vials in stock in our warehouse to ensure you have them when you need them. For anyone doing gas chromatography, we also recommend keeping an electronic leak detector onsite for daily inspection. You don’t want small leaks turn into costly and time consuming repairs!

If you need help identifying a part number, or can’t find what you’re looking for, our product specialists are happy to assist. Reach out to our team today for a quote on any GC consumables or replacement parts that you may need.