DWI Attorney Chuck Ramsay to Attend Gas Chromatography Course
I really want to know more than the state’s experts so that I do the best job possible for my clients. With greater knowledge, I am able to cross examine the Minnesota BCA lab scientists much more effectively.
In DWI cases, Blood and Urine alcohol testing is performed by a technique called “gas chromatography (GC).” To better understand GC analysis, the American Chemical Society (ACS) has short course (5 days with hands-on laboratory experience) on GC analysis, entitled, “Gas Chromatography: Fundamentals, Troubleshooting, and Method Development (A lecture-laboratory course).”
I will be attending this course in November, 2009.
Overview
This course is designed for beginners and intermediate-level practitioners who want practical laboratory experience in gas chromatography (GC). The lectures—supplemented by problem sets, slides, and video presentations—provide the fundamentals needed to understand the technique and instrumentation involved in this powerful analytical tool. At the end of the class, you will have mastered the fundamentals of GC, participated in five hands-on laboratory sessions, performed reference and literature searches, and learned specialized techniques based on your specific interests.
Agenda
- Day 1: GC Overview -- introduction to GC; GC instrumentation overview; practical GC theory: packed & Capillary; laboratory: GC Familiarization.
- Day 2: Injection Techniques & Quantitative Analysis -- overview of sample introduction techniques; capillary inlet systems: split, splitless, on-column, large volume injectors; qualitative and quantitative analysis; laboratories: comparing injection techniques, troubleshooting injector problems, internal vs. external standard techniques.
- Day 3: Columns -- packed column overview; capillary column technology; temperature programming; laboratories: column dimension and phase selection, laboratory: fast GC.
- Day 4: Detectors -- overview of available detectors; details of FID & TCD; GC/MS; laboratories: GC detector operation, troubleshooting FID and TCD.
- Day 5: Method Development & Temperature Programming -- temperature programming; fundamentals of method development; laboratory: develop a method for a completely unknown mixture.
With the knowledge and laboratory experience from this course, I will be Minnesota’s lab expert's worse nightmare.
Mr.John T Castle B.S.R.S is already Dallas/Ft Worth Law Enforcement's worse nightmare. He is really worth looking into. Actually the seminar is being given by the Government and at the seminar you will learn about the machine and only what they want you to know, but they will not teach you the techniques of challenging it. They will promote the machine as wonderful and perfect (flawless), but there are major problems in the following areas: baseline adjustment, limits on retention times, sample carry over and injector needle reuse. Those are a few of the discoveries that Mr. Castle testifies about regularly in DWI/DUI cases as well as some other 30 problem areas in blood alcohol testing. One of his famous case was in 1996 were he was instrumental in the not guilty determination of a man chg'd with DWI manslaughter of a police officer and having a .26 blood alcohol result....and found non-guilty. Contact Mr.Castle (325)277-0911 or me, Marie (614)806-2280.
There are other sources of errors too, like ambient conditions, measurement parameters, and the like.
Breath analysis is much quicker and less prone to error in reproducibility.