OSAC Standards Bulletin – January 2022

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 January 2022

This Standards Bulletin from the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science 

provides a monthly update on: 

• Standards moving through the OSAC Registry approval processes for published and OSAC 

Proposed Standards. 

• Standards moving through the development process at standards developing organizations 

(SDOs).

Bulletin Summary:

• New standards added to the OSAC Registry: 0

• Standards under consideration for the Registry and open for comment: 10

• New SDO published standards: 10

• Standards open for comment at SDOs: 7

OSAC REGISTRY UPDATES

The OSAC Registry is a repository of high-quality, technically sound published and 

proposed standards for forensic science. These written documents define 

minimum requirements, best practices, standard protocols, and other guidance to 

help ensure that the results of forensic analyses are reliable and reproducible.

All the standards on the OSAC Registry have passed a rigorous technical and quality 

review by OSAC members, including forensic science practitioners, research 

scientists, statisticians, and legal experts.
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Standards Open for Comment for OSAC Registry Approval

SDO Published Standards

The OSAC Registry approval process for published standards is used to review existing SDO published 

standards for technical quality and placement on the Registry. Please submit your comments by 11:59 

p.m. ET on January 31, 2022 on whether the following SDO published standards should be included on 

the Registry.

Academy Standards Board (ASB):

• ANSI/ASB Best Practice Recommendation 008, Mass Fatality Scene Processing: Best Practice 

Recommendations for the Medicolegal Authority, First Edition, 2021. Submit your comments 

here.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 085, Standard for Detection Canine Selection, Kenneling, and Healthcare, 

First Edition, 2021. Submit your comments here.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 088, General Guidelines for Training, Certification, and Documentation of 

Canine Detection Disciplines, First Edition, 2020. Submit your comments here.

• ANSI/ASB Best Practice Recommendation 094, Postmortem Impression Recovery: Guidance and 

Best Practices for Disaster Victim Identification, First Edition, 2021. Submit your comments here.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 130, Standard for Training in Forensic DNA Amplification Methods for 

Subsequent Capillary Electrophoresis Sequencing, First Edition, 2021. Submit your comments 

here.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 131, Standard for Training in Forensic DNA Sequencing Using Capillary 

Electrophoresis, First Edition, 2021. Submit your comments here.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 140, Standard for Training in Forensic Human Mitochondrial DNA Analysis, 

Interpretation, Comparison, Statistical Evaluation, and Reporting, First Edition, 2021. Submit 

your comments here.

ASTM:

• ASTM E2451-21, Standard Practice for Preserving Ignitable Liquids and Ignitable Liquid Residue 

Extracts from Fire Debris Samples. Submit your comments here.

OSAC Proposed Standards

The OSAC Registry approval process for OSAC Proposed Standards is used to review OSAC drafted 

standards for technical quality and placement on the Registry. The following OSAC draft proposed 

standards are being considered for submission to an SDO. The final draft provided to the SDO will be 

available on the OSAC Registry as an “OSAC Proposed Standard.” 
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OSAC welcomes comments on whether the current draft is suitable for release to the SDO as well as 

suggestions for improvements in content and wording. To be considered, comments must be placed in 

the OSAC Comment Form and sent to comments@nist.gov by 11:59 p.m. ET on January 31, 2022.

• OSAC 2022-N-0025, Standard for Initial Response at Scenes by Scene Investigators.

• OSAC 2022-S-0024, Best Practice Recommendations for Evaluative Forensic DNA Testimony.

NOTE: OSAC Resource Task Group (RTG) members are encouraged to comment on these standards by 

downloading the RTG Comment Table and submitting it to forensics@nist.gov in accordance with the Registry 

approval process. 

Visit the OSAC website to see all the standards under consideration for the OSAC Registry, along with 

their status in the Registry approval process.

SDO UPDATES

New SDO Published Standards

ASB

ASB published seven new standards in December 2021:

• ANSI/ASB Standard 024, Standard for Training and Certification of Canine Detection of Humans: 

Location Check Using Pre-scented Canines, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Dogs & 

Sensors Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s Dogs and Sensors Consensus Body, this new 

standard provides the requirements for pre-scented canine-location check search using a canine 

team to search for and identify a specific person's (target) scent at a given location. This 

standard promotes consistency across agencies, departments, and organizations utilizing prescented canines – location check search and provide the judicial system optimized protocol.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 026, Standard for Training and Certification of Canine Detection of Humans: 

An Aged Trail Using Pre-scented Canines, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Dogs & 

Sensors Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s Dogs and Sensors Consensus Body, this new 

standard provides the requirements for training, certification and documentation pertaining to 

pre-scented canine-aged track/trail search. Pre-scented canine aged trail searches use a canine 

team (canine and handler) to search for and follow aged trails of a specific person's (target) 

scent over different surface types. An aged track/trail is a human scent pathway that has been 

present for some period of time, typically expressed with a time frame associated with the 

track/trail (e.g., a 24 hour or older track/trail).

Is your organization implementing standards on the OSAC Registry? 

Complete OSAC’s Standards Implementation Declaration Form and send it

to mark.stolorow@nist.gov to let us know. 
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• ANSI/ASB Standard 027, Standard for Training and Certification of Canine Detection of Humans: 

Patrol Canine Team, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Dogs & Sensors 

Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s Dogs and Sensors Consensus Body, this new document

provides standards for the training, certification, and documentation pertaining to canine teams 

(canine and handler) trained to search for specific person(s), location(s), and/or article(s) by 

starting from the last known position. This pertains to trails less than 24 hours old.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 092, Standard for Training and Certification of Canine Detection of 

Explosives, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Dogs & Sensors Subcommittee and 

finalized by ASB’s Dogs and Sensors Consensus Body, this new standard provides the training 

requirements for a canine team (canine handler and canine), and details follow-on assessments 

for trained canine teams, in the field of explosives detection including traditional explosives 

detection canines (EDC), person screening canines (PSC), and explosives detection canines with 

person screening capabilities (EDC w/PSC). This standard is intended to be used as the basis for 

all phases of the training process and includes certification procedures, training and 

assessments, record keeping, and document management.

• ANSI/ASB Best Practice Recommendation 060, Guidelines for Barrel and Overall Length 

Measurements of Firearms, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Firearms & Toolmarks 

Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s Firearms and Toolmarks Consensus Body, this new 

document provides guidelines for measuring and reporting barrel length and overall length (BLOL) of firearms, including guidelines for measurement traceability and estimating uncertainty of 

BL-OL measurements. This document does not apply to descriptive measurements of firearms.

• ANSI/ASB Best Practice Recommendation 108, Forensic Odontology in Disaster Victim 

Identification: Best Practice Recommendations for the Medicolegal Authority, First Edition, 2021. 

Initially drafted by OSAC’s Medicolegal Death Investigation Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s 

Disaster Victim Identification Consensus Body, this new document provides best practices for 

the deployment of a forensic odontology team in a mass fatality incident. It delineates proper 

protocols, equipment, hardware, and software requirements, as well as command structure for 

the deployment of this team as part of the entire disaster victim identification operation.

• ANSI/ASB Standard 125, Organizational and Foundational Standard for Medicolegal Death 

Investigation, First Edition, 2021. Initially drafted by OSAC’s Medicolegal Death Investigation 

Subcommittee and finalized by ASB’s Medicolegal Death Investigation Consensus Body, this new

standard outlines the minimum requirements, fundamental activities, general procedures, 

facilities, and personnel that are the basic components of a medicolegal death investigation 

system. This document provides an overarching description of educational frameworks, 

operational roles, and processes for the medicolegal death investigation system.

ASTM

ASTM published three new standards in November and December 2021:

• ANSI/ASTM E3253-21, Practice for Establishing an Examination Scheme for Intact Explosives. 

This new standard, initially drafted by OSAC’s Ignitable Liquids, Explosives, & Gunshot Residue 

Subcommittee, was finalized and published by ASTM in November 2021. This practice covers the 

evaluation, selection, and application of techniques to establish examination schemes for use by 

forensic explosives examiners to identify intact (unexploded) low and high explosives. 

• ASTM E2489-21, Standard Practice for Statistical Analysis of One-Sample and Two-Sample 

Interlaboratory Proficiency Testing Programs was revised by ASTM on December 22, 2021. 

Developed by ASTM Committee E20 on Temperature Measurement, this practice describes 
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methods for the statistical analysis of laboratory results obtained from interlaboratory 

proficiency testing programs. The methods provide direction for assessing and categorizing the 

performance of individual laboratories based on the relative likelihood of occurrence of their 

test results, and for determining estimates of testing variation associated with repeatability and 

reproducibility. 

• ASTM E691-21, Standard Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study to Determine the 

Precision of a Test Method was updated by ASTM on December 22, 2021. Developed by ASTM 

Committee E20 on Temperature Measurement, this practice describes the techniques for 

planning, conducting, analyzing, and treating the results of an interlaboratory study (ILS) of a 

test method. The statistical techniques described in this practice provide adequate information 

for formulating the precision statement of a test method. This practice is also concerned 

exclusively with test methods which yield a single numerical figure as the test result, although 

the single figure may be the outcome of a calculation from a set of measurements.

Standards Open for Comment at SDOs

For a full list of forensic science standards that are currently open for comment at SDOs (7) and how to 

submit your feedback, visit OSAC’s Standards Open for Comment webpage. This page consolidates and 

tracks comment deadlines for you and will be updated on a weekly basis.

OTHER NEWS 

Other Forensic Science News, Events & Training

AAFS 2022 Annual Scientific Conference

The American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) 74th Annual Scientific Conference will be held

February 21-25 in Seattle, WA. AAFS 2022 will be a hybrid event, offering both in-person and virtual

attendance options, and registration is now open. Visit the AAFS website for ongoing updates about the

meeting.

Center for Statistics and Application in Forensic Evidence 

The Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE) is offering the following webinar.

Learn more and register.

• Improving Forensic Decision Making: A Human-Cognitive Perspective | February 17, 2022 |

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST

Forensic Technology Center of Excellence

NIJ’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE) will be delivering a virtual Firearm and

Toolmarks Policy and Practice Forum on January 11-14, 2022 that will explore new developments,

discuss the foundations of firearm and toolmark examination, and address the implementation of new
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technologies into workflows. Leading up to the forum, FTCoE is hosting a firearm and toolmarks webinar

series to jump-start the discussion.

Learn more about these events at https://forensiccoe.org/2022-firearm-toolmarks-forum/.

National Institute of Justice

Subscribe to the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) forensic list to see the latest NIJ awards, solicitations,

events, and publications.