Electronic Noses Hold Out the Promise of Sniffing Out Criminals

Often new lines of hope come from the strangest places and for very different motives. The USA Dept of Home Security plans to research whether human body odor can be used as a 'lie detector', or whether every person has a unique 'body odor signature'. Ironically, a spin-off from this could be the discovery and recognition by the authorities of conditions like 'fecal body odor'. They would basically be using the same equipment and testing methods often mentioned in this blog.

It is of interest that they are researching if humans may emit certain odors or have odor changes when lying. People with metabolic body odor, especially fecal body odor, have mentioned they feel that emotions may be a symptomatic factor.

Scientific research shows that so-called volatile organic compounds present in human sweat, saliva and urine can be analyzed using a technique known as gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry.

Research published by the Royal Society in London in 2006 found "a substantial number of marker compounds [in human sweat] that can potentially differentiate individuals or groups."

Researchers took five samples each from 179 people over a 10-week period and analyzed them, finding hundreds of chemical markers that remained more or less constant for each person over time. An analysis of these compounds "found strong evidence for individual [odor] fingerprints" the researchers concluded.

They warned, however, that some people appear to have less distinctive odors than others.

"The reason for the variation in distinctiveness is unclear," the researchers said. More importantly, the odors of some people changed during the course of the study. "Not all subjects had consistent marker compounds over time, which might be due to physiological, dietary, or other changes," they concluded.

From Washington Times article about human body odor signatures (March 2009)