Environmental forensic source identification for complex contaminant mixtures using advanced computational fingerprinting

Environmental forensic investigations endeavour to identify connections between environmental pollution and polluters. There assessments are integral to legal cases spanning pollution from accidental spills to illegal disposal of chemical waste. A common challenge is the investigation of complex contaminant mixtures that may have multiple polluters or where only part of the complex contaminant mixture are indicative of the polluter.
Computational fingerprinting methods are promising tools to untangle the relevant source or polluter-specific “fingerprints” out of complex contaminant profiles.
For the proposed research, we aim to develop automated statistical fingerprinting applications based on machine learning and multivariate statistical analyses to help identify
1) The specific ignitable liquids used in different arson cases
2) Different plastic product categories based on their additive patterns
The established methods will enable the investigation of main plastic product types that contribute to local microplastic pollution and help identify individual polluters.

Faculty Supervisor:

Roxana Suehring

Student:

Partner:

Chemistry Matters

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Toronto Metropolitan University

Program: