A recovery method for airborne gunshot residue retained in human nasal mucus

Each living person is equipped with their own personal particle filter, a nose. The human nose is capable of filtering and trapping airborne gunshot residue (AGSR) from discharged firearms. An extraction/concentration technique has been developed to recover the AGSR retained in human nasal mucus. The technique has successfully recovered abundant AGSR from 48 hours postfiring sample collection times. The AGSR particles were characterized by a JEOL 6400 scanning electron microscope coupled with a Noran Voyager energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer.