Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Environmental Forensics





So what is environmental forensics? This science involves the investigation of all facets of environmental contamination pertaining to the law and public debate. Officers aim to show through the courts, who may be the cause of any instances of pollution be this as a result of contamination of a chemical or biological nature. This area of forensics is closely connected with geochemistry, analytical and atmospheric chemistry, environmental fate and transport assessments.

One example could be with regards to environmental pollution; officers might consider the period of the release of the pollution, its origins along with the effects on human life. Fingerprinting is usually associated by many to forensic science, but in addition to human fingerprinting, chemical 'fingerprinting' tactics can be applied to water, sediment, soils and air in addition to petroleum hydrocarbons to speed and acquire any possible court proceedings.

Environmental forensics is a quite recent discipline in its own right, for the reason that the term was only used from 1989 following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This particular incident highlights how companies are now held accountable in the eyes of the law and have thus tightened their own inspections to try and stop comparable very expensive events from happening again. Due to the European Union Environmental Liability Directive of 2004, such mistakes could cost a business up to 60% of their total annual profit margins. Similar laws have already been passed elsewhere thus stimulating the rapid growth and development of environmental forensics worldwide.

If you intend on a career in forensics in this field, you'll find it is best to have studied biology and chemistry ahead of applying for a college degree in environmental forensics (or science). Throughout your course, you can expect to cover the laws relating to this discipline, as well as learning the more practical skills of investigation, detection and prosecution of any appropriate parties.

In addition to becoming an environmental forensics officer, your degree should allow you to be able to find employment in national, state and local government agencies as well as in the emergency services and the industrial sectors. As an example, environmental science can result in the speeding up of development on a 'brown belt' area by investigating samples for contamination.

Careers in forensics are one of the most fascinating areas you can invest your working life doing. The training is lengthy and intensive and once there, you will continue to educate yourself for life as it's just that kind of job! However, you will get a lot of satisfaction out of any of the different career options in forensics, including environmental forensics.


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