New detergent washes away stains of murder: study

Yesterday Spanish researchers stated that new generation cleaning products could potential help criminals get away with murder by making bloodstains invisible to forensic tests. A team at the university of Valencia discovered that new washing powders and other chemicals that generate oxygen, rather than use chlorine,  erase telltale traces of hemoglobin, which is the protein in the blood that transports oxygen throughout the body. Up to now forensic scientists could identify blood using a mixture of chemicals to unmask the stains, even after ten washes. The new detergents, like Reckitt Benckiser's 'Vanish', contain the active ingredient sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate which produces a fizz of oxygen that degrades the blood even though it may still be visible to the eye. The same team that discovered this is now working to see if the oxygen producing chemicals also destroys DNA