Q: How does a medical examiner know where to look for dental records in order to identify a dead body? Is there a clearinghouse?
Madeline Litt, Dunwoody
A: There is no clearinghouse for dental records. Law enforcement or personnel with the medical examiner/coroner must investigate possible identities so they can contact family members to discover who the victim's dentist(s) may have been, Dr. Robert E. Barsley, president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology and a professor at the LSU Health Sciences Center School of Dentistry, told Q&A on the News in an e-mail. Missing person reports and the FBI's National Crime Information Center, which contains information on missing persons and unidentified human remains, may be queried. He added that in order to undertake a dental comparison, the forensic dentist must have the results/information from the postmortem dental exam and some antemortem dental information.
Q: Why do the collection workers dump all the recycled items together, even though we’re supposed to put the paper on top?
Barbara Joye, Atlanta
A: Single stream recycling has been developed that allows all the recyclables to be dumped together. When the recyclables are collected as part of a single stream system and transported to a recycling processing facility, machines separate the paper from cans and bottles, Connie Wiggins, executive director of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, told Q&A on the News. "However, if a community is collecting recyclables as part of a dual stream system, paper may need to be placed on top. The reason is that the paper would be placed in one part of the collection truck and cans and bottles in another. Placing the paper on top makes it easier to separate under this type of system," she wrote in an e-mail.
Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or e-mail q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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