A series of experiments were conducted using various types of pollen grain, powder and metal particulates to determine their persistence on a range of different types of materials. The decay curves generated in the repeated experiments all broadly conform to those obtained and already presented in the literature for fibres and glass particulates. The experiments presented in this paper were conducted for up to 647 hours for individual runs and it was found that a general rule existed that it was the material type rather than the particulate type that was the major controlling factor in the persistence of particles. For the pollen grain experiments the overall theory is sustained; there is a significant loss initially followed by a slower decay although this is not precise given the varied nature of palynomorph types. The manner by which the particulates were introduced onto the material had an initial immediate effect, however, the persistence of these particulates over longer periods of time was generally unaffected. The inference presented in these published papers (referring to glass, paint, foam, hair etc.) is that in the first instance, particulates are shed from clothing rapidly (minutes) and then subsequently shed more slowly, with varying percentages of particulates remaining after several hours. The overall effect of the decay curve appears to be one of exponential decrease. There are however, a number of factors which have been reported to affect the persistence and decay curves of small particulates and these are well summarised by Houck [6]. He considers that the size and texture of the material being transferred may affect the persistence of such trace materials and links this to the type of surface on which the material is being retained. Further, he considers whether the particulates can be easily removed (and whether a suspect has tried to remove them). Crucially, he identifies the importance of the length of time interval between the offence and recovery of the retained material and links this to the degree of activity undertaken by the suspect or the victim following particulate transfer.The experiments presented in this paper are in response to a series of specific casework requirements in which it was deemed necessary to determine the relevant transfer and persistence of small sedimentary particles (soils, natural clays, silts and 4 sands, pollen and metal particulates), from a number of different types of clothing.Specifically, this paper seeks to identify not only the transfer, persistence and relevant abundance of particulates on clothing over time, but also whether a general rule can be introduced for all such trace particles of generally similar size (less than 100m diameter) and occurrence (glass, paint, fibres, hair, soils, clays, silts, sands, pollen and other anthropogenic materials). There is a need to consider whether geoscientific trace materials act in the same, or different, manner as those anthropogenic particulates already documented in the literature. We need to inve...