Analysis of gunshot residues from nontoxic ammunition: a contribution to health and environmental analysis

Abstract

This study’s aim was to determine the presence, as well as to evaluate the health and environmental impacts, of chemical elements from firearm shots during shooter practice at outdoor shooting ranges, both in the environment and on the shooters’ hands. Two high-precision devices were used for measuring suspended particles that are released during discharge of Taurus PT 100 .40 caliber pistols. The analysis of collected data allowed the identification of specific distribution patterns of samples that were adsorbed. Moreover, samples were collected from the opisthenar area of the hand to investigate both the occurrence and deposition of particles and chemical elements through scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The results indicate that copper, lead, and zinc concentration profiles will be able to delimit and reveal more precise details regarding shots made with nontoxic ammunition (NTA). In particular, the residual graphic analysis indicated that the majority of metal deposited in the shooter's hand is zinc. Further, the metals barium and lead also were detected. Due to the exposure to these elements, it could be concluded that engineering controls and administrative management should be sought in order to avoid human overexposure and environmental release of these airborne toxic metals.

Keywords:

• Criminal sciences
• environmental pollution
• health
• metal
• particle

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by the Brazilian research agency – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) under grant number Process 306949/2018-0, and by the Portuguese public agency – Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia), under grants numbers UIDB/04033/2020 (CITAB) and PEst-OE/QUI/UI0616/2014 (CQ-VR). Moreover, the authors thank the support of the Public Security of the State of Ceará, part of the Civil Police, Military Police and Fire Department, linked to the SSPDS - Secretariat of Security Public Sector of the State of Ceará. The authors would also like to thank the Central Analítica – Federal University of Ceará (funded by Finep-CT-INFRA, CAPES-Pró-Equipamentos, and MCTI-CNPq-SisNano2.0) for the SEM-EDS measurements.