It is recommended that laboratories store their consumables in such a way as to limit exposure to the environment and consider effective pretreatment. Current pretreatment methods, such as autoclaving and UV cross-linking, may not be entirely effective since they may not penetrate all surfaces of the consumable.

The FSS has reported ethylene oxide gas to be extremely effective in removing DNA. Ethylene oxide is commonly used to sterilize medical equipment, and is used by some manufacturers of the consumables used in forensic DNA analysis.

The first incident in the United States was reported after DNA profiles were uploaded into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and subsequently linked multiple crimes across multiple states. After it was determined that the FSS had also observed this same profile (with SGM+) on more than one occasion, it was believed that the profile must have originated from a consumable used in the analysis process.

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