Does a Woods Lamp Effectively Detect Semen?
Many substances, including semen, have been reported to fluoresce under examination with a Wood’s lamp. Consequently, use of the Wood’s lamp has been recommended as a method of identifying semen in a sexual assault examination. Santucci and associates question whether other commonly used substances might also fluoresce and be confused with semen. They also tested whether the Wood’s lamp was, in fact, a useful screening device for detecting semen. Forty-one physicians completed questionnaires that collected information about their length of practice and the frequency of performing sexual assault examinations. Almost one half (46 percent) of the physicians reported that they sometimes or always used a Wood’s lamp during sexual assault examinations. Each physician was then asked to identify semen on cotton swatches by using a Wood’s lamp. The study took place in a darkened room with a Wood’s lamp with a wavelength of approximately 360 nm. Twenty-nine different samples of semen and 13 othe
