Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Medical Hypotheses, cilt.211, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Establishing whether skeletonized human remains are of forensic or archaeological origin is a fundamental medicolegal challenge. Current methods — particularly radiocarbon bomb-pulse dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) — are effective but require specialized infrastructure and costs that preclude routine application. This paper proposes that bone-incorporated microplastic burden may constitute a potential chronological indicator capable of complementing existing methods. The hypothesis rests on three converging lines of evidence: (1) synthetic polymer particles are absent from environmental strata predating mass plastic production in the early 1950s; (2) recent studies confirm microplastic accumulation in human bone tissue, bone marrow, cartilage, and synovial tissue; and (3) pyrolysis–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) enables polymer-specific detection in bone-derived specimens. Beyond binary forensic/archaeological discrimination, the exponential growth of global plastic production may be reflected in bone microplastic burdens of individuals from successive decades, potentially enabling semi-quantitative era-of-death estimation. A four-tier analytical workflow is proposed: Nile Red fluorescent staining for rapid screening (with acknowledged specificity limitations), µ-FTIR or µ-Raman microscopy for polymer confirmation, Py-GC/MS for quantitative profiling and as an intermediate verification step for negative screening results exploiting a fundamentally different analytical principle, and AMS radiocarbon dating as the definitive fail-safe for all inconclusive cases and for near-boundary specimens. The hypothesis is testable and the methodology available; however, empirical validation is required before any forensic application can be considered.