An expert chemist with 36 years of experience on the dashing 90s, helping to treat people and solve crimes

Oleksandr Dobroriz is the head of the Department for Laboratory Research of Biological Evidence of the Department of the State Committee for Forensic Examinations in the Brest Region. Once he thought that for nothing in the world he would connect his life with a chemical examination, but fate had opposite plans. The Brest resident has been working in this area for almost 36 years. He has about 30 scientific publications based on real cases from expert practice. Alexander Mikhailovich subordinates more than 50 people who work in the departments of forensic chemical, forensic histological, forensic biological and forensic genetic examinations. They do researchfor the police, the Investigative Committee, health care. It is for medicine that examinations are done as a matter of priority. According to Alexander Dobroriz, the highest assessment of the work is when a person was saved. In an interview with a BelTA correspondent, the expert spoke about his unexpected path to the profession and how far forensic medical examinations have stepped forward.

- Alexander Mikhailovich, fate really took an unusual turn, bringing you from pharmaceuticals to expert chemists. How did it happen?

- In 1980, I entered the first year of the Kharkov State Pharmaceutical Institute. Naturally, he was preparing to work in a pharmacy. In the fourth year we had the subject "toxicological chemistry", where we studied poisons and prepared for work in chemical laboratories. Then I was sure that I would work anywhere, but not in a forensic chemical laboratory. After graduating from the institute, I was assigned to a pharmacy in Chernihiv. After a couple of months I realized - not mine. The work was routine.

Then they were drafted into the army. Interestingly, classmates served in hospitals, pharmacies, and I was sent to the troops of radiation and chemical protection. When I just graduated from the sergeant's school, there was an accident in Chernobyl. We were also urgently sent there to reconnoiter the radiation background, to draw up maps of where people can live and where they can’t. He stayed there only two days. Lucky, because I went not in the first, but in the second place. Those who drove immediately after the accident received a fairly high dose of radioactive exposure.

After the service, there were several ways. I could go back to the pharmacy in Chernigov or Kyiv, or go to graduate school, where I was invited, because I graduated from the institute with honors and was engaged in a scientific society. But I listened to my mother, who advised me to go to Brest, where my older sister already lived. It was 1987. In "Pharmacy" they offered the position of the head of a department in a pharmacy warehouse, and in the Brest Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination - an expert chemist. The choice was completely random. Since I worked in a pharmacy and did not like it, I decided to try it here. At that time, the team was small: three experts, three laboratory assistants and I, a 24-year-old guy.

- What was the forensic examination like at that time?

- I would say, in a deplorable state. The Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination at the Health Department was funded on a residual basis. The laboratory is the same equipment, and it was tight with it. The bureau was headed by Vladimir Moguchy, he made a lot of efforts to get money for equipment.

In the early 1990s, we started to equip very quickly. The Department of Chemical Expertise in Brest was the first in Belarus to buy Agat gas chromatographs. The whole adventure, as we bought them. The Soviet Union collapsed, but the rubles were still in use and we were sold equipment for them. We came to Moscow to the plant to pick up chromatographs together with a colleague. They brought us by car to the Belorussky railway station and unloaded them. There are a lot of boxes, there are two of us, and the train is far away. Criminal elements are already looking at these boxes with interest. The porters are asking for an amount that we have not seen in our eyes at that time. They stood and did not understand what to do. Well, two engineers drove up from the factory and helped to load it. We placed this equipment on the second and third shelves and brought it to Brest.

A little later we bought a liquid chromatograph "Milichrome". At the same time, gas chromatographs of the Kristall series began to be produced in Yoshkar-Ola. It was something unprecedented in technology. We bought gas chromatographs with serial numbers #4 and #6. In fact, they were the first in the post-Soviet space. Engineers arrived from Yoshkar-Ola. They set up the instruments, showed and told how to work. It seems to have understood everything. They left, and the next day I start turning it on and I understand that I don’t know what to do. I was tormented, tormented - and I wanted to cry, honestly. Then he gathered. In the end, I figured it out, everything worked. At "Agatha", "Crystal" and "Milichrome" we did such examinations, which were not yet in Minsk.

- What are the most common chemical examinations and what substances do you have to deal with?

- In the Department of Chemical Expertise last year we did about 2.4 thousand studies. Most of them - about 1.8 thousand - is the determination of the presence and concentration of ethyl alcohol in biological objects: blood, urine. We perform examinations of alcohol-containing liquids, biochemical examinations - determination of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood, methemoglobin, determination of cholinesterase activity, biochemical parameters of blood. We do chemical examinations for the presence of toxic substances: drugs, drugs, pesticides, volatile organic compounds. These are our main areas.

- Can you remember cases from your practice when the concentration of alcohol was maximum?

- Of the concentrations that we determined, the corpses were probably 8-9 ppm of alcohol. It is believed that from a concentration of 3.5 ppm a person can die. At the same time, when the objects received from hospitals were examined until 2010, there were concentrations of 5-6 ppm and people remained alive. All this depends on the characteristics of the human body.

- Literally before your very eyes, genetic examinations began to develop in Brest. Where did you start and where are you now? Usually, people first associate this examination with the establishment of paternity. But I think that assistance to law enforcement officers still prevails here.

- Regarding parenthood: prior to genetic examinations, examinations of paternity exclusion were appointed by coincidence of groups. There, in almost 90% of cases, paternity was not excluded. This was the case until 2007. Genetic examination, on the other hand, establishes exactly who is whose dad.

When the department of genetic examinations was created, modern analytical equipment was purchased. Of course, it is worse than the one used now, but there was a fairly high and high-quality level of identification. The equipment was only improved, which made it possible to conduct a larger number of examinations, to take more parameters. For the examination of the establishment of kinship, this was not important. This was important for solving the crimes of past years. We examined objects that had a very small trace of genetic material. More sensitive methods allowed this biomaterial to be isolated, PCR performed, multiplied and identified whose it was. Quite a lot of materials were sent to us for examination. This helped identify criminals who could live with impunity for 20 years or more.

- Over these 36 years that you have been working in this area, how far has chemical expertise stepped?

- Chemical expertise is developing very dynamically. I'll give you an example. In the late 1990s, a man worked for us. Five years later, he was lured to a private pharmacy. After working there, I wanted to come back. He was a good expert, but after seeing how everything had changed in five years, he refused, because he would have to start almost from scratch. Each new device is a new program that needs to be mastered. No matter how much experience you have, you start all over again.

The head is responsible for the quality of work in the department. To control everything, you need to be the first to learn and work best on this device. Only then will you be able to do it yourself, and advise other experts, and check whether they are doing everything right. If you do not do an examination within a year, this is a disqualification for the head. Not doing it for two or three years is a disaster, you are no longer an expert.

BELTA.

PHOTO by Vadim Yakubenok