Ultraviolet light technology, widely used to spot blood at crime scenes, may be used in detecting oil on the beaches affected by the BP oil spill, Press TV reported.
Coastal geologist Rip Kirby is experimenting with UV lights to detect hard-to-spot oil such as crude mixed with mud or light stains on sand on the beaches of Gulf of Mexico.
"The first time I took the UV flashlight out on the beach to see if it would work, it was beyond my wildest dreams," the National Geographic quoted Kirby as saying.
"It was easy to see that there was oil on the beach ... the contamination was widespread," Kirby added.
When exposed to UV light, clean sand appears purple or black. Some minerals such as calcium carbonate that exist in seashells glow blue. And oil glows yellow-orange.
However, the heavy-duty spotlight that Kirby's team is using is very expensive, making it almost impossible to equip the tens of thousands of clean-up workers with it.
Kirby, who is currently a graduate student at the University of South Florida, suggests that a simpler USD 17 portable UV flashlight can simply do the job.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill began in April 20, 2010 after a BP-operated drilling platform exploded and sank, gushing huge amounts of oil into the water.