What are the disadvantages of luminol?

DISADVANTAGES OF LUMINOL 1. NOT ALL THAT GLOWS WITH LUMINOLIS BLOOD. Luminol will also react strongly with various metals, vegetable peroxidases, and chemicals, including bleaches used in cleaning; however, none of the presumptive blood tests demonstrate conclusively that blood and especially human blood is present. 2.

Are there false positives with luminol?

Published research on the specificity of luminol has focused on the study of false positives, usually indicating that body fluids such as perspiration, saliva, semen, and urine do not give positive results with luminol (10).

How reliable is luminol?

Following an analysis of the test results, other test sensitivity, and safety data, it was concluded that luminol is a more reliable reagent than others due to a higher improbability of producing false positives and false negatives, apart from being safer than other substances.

Can luminol destroy evidence?

The luminol reagent reacts with the iron in hemoglobin resulting in a creation of a blue-green, luminescent light. Precautions to consider when using luminol include the following: The chemical reaction can destroy evidence at the crime scene. Luminol will react to other substances, including copper and bleach.

What are the advantages of using luminol?

Decreased costs and deaths. Decreased costs and deaths. Eradication presence of hepatitis C virus and other pathogenic microorganisms in the hospital environment. Control the proper use of enzymatic detergents in removing occult blood in the hospital environment.

Is luminol toxic?

Luminol itself is not poisonous. However, working with hydrogen peroxide or sodium peroxide can be dangerous. Those substances are acidly and oxidizing. Thus, working with them is harmful.

What can cause false positive luminol?

False Positives It is hypothesized that luminol will show a false positive reaction on substances, metals, and surfaces containing iron. Also, that surfaces sprayed with blood then cleaned or concealed will still test positive with luminol chemeluminscene.

What is a problem with luminol?

One problem with luminol is that the chemical reaction can destroy other evidence in the crime scene. For this reason, investigators only use luminol after exploring a lot of other options.

Can you destroy DNA by using too much luminol?

Luminol has been widely used in the field of crime scene investigations to detect latent blood; however, luminol has the tendency to destroy DNA evidence. Fluorescein, an alternative to luminol for detecting latent blood at a crime scene, does not destroy DNA evidence.