FARMINGTON – NorthStar EMS is offering free, pocket-sized DNA identification kits to area residents at NorthStar bases all over Franklin County, the ambulance service announced Friday.
The Franklin Memorial Hospital based ambulance service is “always looking for a way to support our community. This was something we could offer that was relatively inexpensive but could be very important” for families if the worst should happen, NorthStar Director David Robie said Friday.
The kits are compact and easy to use, he said. They include “normal identification items such as name, address, photo, medical records, fingerprints, and other markings.” They also contain simple DNA sampling tools of the sort often used in television shows like CSI – mouth swabs and containers for hair samples. Once the information is taken, Robie said, “it goes nowhere, just sits right in your home, wherever you want to keep it, just in case.”
DNA and other identification tools can be instrumental to police and detectives when emergencies do occur, and in a Friday press release Robie said the ambulance service is “pleased to be able to supply these free kits as another way of helping to provide up-to-date information for the folks in the communities we serve.”
There are enough kits “for whoever needs em,” Robie said, adding they can be picked up all over the NorthStar region in bases in Farmington, Rangeley, Phillips, Carrabassett Valley and Livermore.
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