Trace Metal Analysis of Bone Ash, Portland Cement, and Human Cremated Remains by ICP-AES

Indianapolis, IN

From 1996 to 2002, the owner of the Tri-State Crematorium (Noble, GA) improperly disposed of human bodies and provided the families of the deceased with cement powder in place of cremated remains. Since this incident, a variety of methods have been proposed to distinguish human cremated remains from cement powder. In this research, hotplate and microwave-assisted digestion methods were identified for bone ash (NIST 1400), Portland cement (NIST 634a), and human cremated remains. A variety of parameters (e.g. reagent concentrations, volumes, and temperatures) were manipulated to generate one method suitable for digestion of all three materials. Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) was used to both evaluate the digestion methods and determine patterns in the trace metals present. Differences in trace metal levels were used to distinguish bone ash, cement, human cremated remains, and mixtures of the three.