Presently, Ghost Wipe swabs and tape (literally packaging tape) are both commonly used for settled dust detection and asbestos clearances by consultants. The problem with Ghost Wipes are they were never designed for furnace disintegration in the laboratory and were in fact designed for detecting heavy metals on surfaces. They are mentioned in SEM/TEM asbestos detection methods but these methods utilise other forms of sample disintegration.
The problem with tapes is much the same as when doing your Christmas gift wrapping. That is, sticking to everything you don’t want them to stick to, made doubly awkward by wearing gloves or a foggy respirator. Tapes also give analysts some grief in the same sort of way and also coating potential asbestos fibres with adhesive.
We at Focus are trialing and supplying Forensic Instant Lifters and Gel Lifters. These are specifically designed for latent fingerprint uplift as well as fibre uplift at crime scenes (very CSI).
Much easier to use in the field and can be written on directly (as terms of effectiveness, they seem to be providing a similar strike rate of positives vs negatives to tape samples.
The below two images are from recent site works, where gel lifts were used to validate areas following asbestos removal. The first image is the tape itself, the second image is debris on this tape, including amosite on surfaces. 👇
To order these fantastic little surface sampling lifts hit the link below 👇
Request Gel Lifts