Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Investigating The Efficacy Of Dna Damage With Bleach In Forensic Laboratories And At Crime Scenes, Alyssa Tuccinardi

Honors Theses

Household/commercial bleach (6% NaOCl, sodium hypochlorite) degrades DNA through oxidative damage, production of chlorinated base products, and cleavage of DNA strands (breaking it into smaller and smaller fragments). The presence of these lesions significantly impacts the ability to generate a full genetic profile from an evidentiary sample. In fact, knowledge of the damaging effect of bleach on DNA is the basis for its use in forensic laboratories to clean workbenches and prevent cross-contamination of samples between cases. Additionally, bleach is used intentionally by criminals to clean up crime scenes and destroy DNA evidence. A previous study demonstrated that bleach has …