title: Fantastic plastic? Experimental evaluation of polyurethane bone substitutes as proxies for human bone in trauma simulations.
abstract: Recent years have seen steady improvements in the recognition and interpretation of violence related injuries in human skeletal remains. Such work has at times benefited from the involvement of biological anthropologists in forensic casework and has often relied upon comparison of documented examples with trauma observed in skeletal remains. In cases where no such example exists investigators must turn to experimentation. The selection of experimental samples is problematic as animal proxies may be too dissimilar to humans and human cadavers may be undesirable for a raft of reasons. The current article examines a third alternative in the form of polyurethane plates and spheres marketed as viable proxies for human bone in ballistic experiments. Through subjecting these samples to a range of impacts from both modern and archaic missile weapons it was established that such material generally responds similarly to bone on a broad, macroscopic scale but when examined in closer detail exhibits a range of dissimilarities that call for caution in extrapolating such results to real bone.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK. Electronic address: mjsmith@bournemouth.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Tactical Firearms Unit - Armed Response, Dorset Police, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: TPE Firearms, Weymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pover
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Barnetson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: Bethany
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guy
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rickman
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Walton
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000293:injuries*; D001930:Brain Injuries; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D044709:Forensic Ballistics; D011140:Polyurethanes
chemical_list: D011140:Polyurethanes
keywords: Forensic Anthropology; Gunshot; Head injury; Synthetic bone substitutes; Trauma