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OTTAWA, August 30, 2011  —  University of Ottawa research shows geographical data stored in our hair can reveal our comings and goings.

University of Ottawa scientists Gilles St-Jean and Michelle Chartrand don’t need to search far and wide to determine where you’ve been or where you come from or what you’ve been eating. They can find what they’re looking for right on the top of your head. 

By analyzing the stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen retained by the hair, the two researchers can reveal details about where a person has been or is from. The information is linked to the local water the person uses for drinking and cooking. What’s more, the stable isotopes of nitrogen, carbon and sulphur along a person's strands of hair can not only give a running snapshot of dietary intake, but also point to a potential illness. This method of hair analysis is riding a wave of popularity, especially in forensic science for cases where DNA testing and other traditional means of investigation are shedding no light. 

This has led St-Jean and Chartrand to conduct pan-Canadian hair analyses for a database that could help investigators solve a slew of cold cases through geo-location chemical criteria. The project's Canadian forensic sampling exercise is also adding the trace elements found in water and hair to the new database. The RCMP’s forensic laboratories, for their part, are including trace elements from soils and quartz grains collected during the research team’s sampling work. Finally, with a group at the Université de Montréal, the first modern pollen database is being built from the sampling efforts as well.