http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/health/alcohol-hair-testing-the-roadblock-revolution.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/alcohol-hair-testing-the-roadblock-revolution.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Imagine you’re a policeman, sitting at a road block. You’re bored out of your mind. There’s not much to do at a roadblock but sit around and wait for people to come past. Of course it depends on the type of roadblock. It could be one of those roadblocks setup to urine alcohol testing, or it could be one of those more exciting roadblocks, you know, one of those roadblocks set to capture a fugitive from the law, and help them out.

It’s a known fact that most fugitives are very nice, friendly people, who accidentally did something wrong, something like going through the grocery store at four in the morning, trying to find banana bread with anchovies in it for their pregnant wife. They’re strolling around the produce section, and they casually grab an apple, in their sleepy state they just take a bite of it, “Oh my gosh! That’s disgustingly crisp and juicy!” they cry, and set it back down, and leave it there. Next thing they know, the produce police ask to talk to them, and they panic, and run for the exit, jump in their car and speed away. And so the police setup a roadblock, trying to help the poor fugitive out, and help the fugitive get that anchovy banana bread back to their wife. However, this isn’t that kind of roadblock. It’s just your one of your typical, run of the mill, urine alcohol testing roadblocks.

Urine alcohol testing is one of the more tedious parts of a cop’s job. Think about it, here you are, this huge powerful cop, with the ability to arrest people for spitting on the sidewalk, and you’re reduced to being a urine sampler. And it’s boring all around. You make someone pee in a cup, they come back, you go test it, and you may or may not arrest them. Even the people taking the little test think to themselves, “Oh gee, the cup again. How quaint.”

You may not need to do this degrading test any longer. Now there are other options besides urine alcohol testing. Yes, thanks to advances in medical genome technology, we now have the option of performing a hair alcohol test.

Multiple hair product companies found that one of the biggest obstacles to treating hair was the residual alcohol left over in hair after a lovely night of some sweet partying. This is a bigger obstacle to hair care than dandruff, hair dying, or even baldness. Alcohol levels aren’t constant, but rather vary from day to day depending on how much alcohol you’ve drunk the night before making them more difficult to counter. Then one day, the CEO of a major hair product company had dinner with the chief of police from Cuba, Missouri. (Yes, there is a Cuba, Missouri., and yes, the chief of police from there is very well known in the upper echelons of hair product CEOs) Soon the Cuba, Missouri Police Chief talked about the woes of urine alcohol testing, the CEO talked about the woes of alcohol content in hair, and they came up with the beautiful idea of alcohol hair testing.

They did some research, and what they found is that the body uses hair as a natural method for alcohol expulsion. It’s related to the way that cooling elements work on computer processors, in that it provides more surface area for interaction with the air, allowing the alcohol to evaporate readily and disperse into the surrounding environment. Using this knowledge, and multiple tests performed to determine the normal level of alcohol hair content, police are now starting to do away with urine alcohol testing in favor of the hair alcohol test.c

And police everywhere are rejoicing because of the simplicity of “One strand of your hair please” when compared to “Please urinate in this cup for the purpose of urine alcohol testing”. And it’s about time too, I was sick of peeing in that little cup.

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Christian Farmer is a writer for Innuity. In his spare time he compares various topics such as heights of buildings, and the weight of Andre the Giant to the weighs of average sized people. For more information on the hair alcohol test, alcohol hair testing, or urine alcohol testing, please visit http://www.trimegalabs.co.uk.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/how-i-beat-urine-alcohol-testing.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/how-i-beat-urine-alcohol-testing.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
This epic began with what I thought was an innocent Friday night movie at the house of my friend, Christian. It ended as a fight for my future against the plans of false comrades and cunning foes and the cold judgment of urine alcohol testing.

I was a sober young man of 16. I confirmed that the movie was PG and that an adult would be present. Christian had invited others as well. There was popcorn and root beer, and Nancy brought cookie dough she had made. She assured us that she had used egg substitutes, but this was a red herring for the true poison. Little did I suspect that this night would pit me against the horrors of urine alcohol testing.

Twenty minutes into Toy Story, everything was fine. I was enjoying the company, the movie, and the delicious refreshments. Urine alcohol testing was the farthest thing from my mind. Then Christian made an astute observation.

“This cookie dough has a strong taste of vanilla,” he said.
“Yes,” Nancy replied. “I put extra vanilla in to make it taste better.”
“You know vanilla is about 80% alcohol, right?” Christian interrogate.
“Are you serious?” She innocently asked.

But her jig was up. How could a woman of 16 so adept at cooking make a mistake like that. This was no mistake. About that time I noticed I was feeling woozy. I stood up slowly and looked at my watch.

“I just remembered I have to get up early to help my dad,” I said.
Everyone protested, but I couldn’t be swayed. I had been betrayed by someone I thought was my friend. Nancy, that loathsome siren, knew exactly how to draw me in, but why? It never occurred to me that Nancy might have urine alcohol testing on her mind.

Christian offered to drive me home, but how could I trust him to drive. He had eaten as much cookie dough as I had. So I walked the five miles back to my home.
That weekend I stayed away from anything that contained the least bit of alcohol. I couldn’t let myself become addicted. It wasn’t until work the next Monday that I learned this ordeal would culminate in urine alcohol testing.

I worked at a call center doing customer support for a cable service. I had only been at the job for a week, but I had already become adept at it. The job wasn’t bad, except my supervisor, Jenny, liked to torture the new people. She always threatened us by saying things like, “If you can’t do the job there are five others waiting outside for your seat.”

Toward the end of the day that Monday another new caller named Rich told me he had overheard a conversation between Jenny and another supervisor.

“They’re going to give us a surprise drug test tomorrow,” he said. “I heard them talking about it just now.”

Normally, this news wouldn’t bother me. But because of the events of the previous weekend, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The woozy feeling I had experienced at Christian’s house was coming back. Would there be urine alcohol testing? Could there still alcohol in my system?

“No big deal,” I said, “I don’t have anything to worry about.”

I could feel myself starting to sweat. If my parents found out I had been at a party with alcohol they would never trust me again.

I spent that night studying how I might beat urine alcohol testing. I found out urine alcohol testing wasn’t the only way they could do it.

The most advanced way would be to use hair. Alcohol hair testing allowed them to look back months. This was easy to overcome. I just shaved my entire body.

What about blood alcohol testing? If they can’t take my blood, they can’t test me. That Russian boy who couldn’t stop bleeding – what was that disease called?

Hemo…….hemofiii…..hemafra……hemophilia!

I could tell them I had hemophilia.

I feared the last option the most. Urine alcohol testing. I couldn’t just not go. But maybe I could dilute it enough to fool the urine alcohol testing equipment. It wasn’t perfect, but it might give me a chance. I spent the rest of the night drinking water and going to the bathroom. I went six or seven times.

The next day I was nervous but confident. I was safe from alcohol hair testing and blood alcohol testing. But I wasn’t sure about urine alcohol testing.

I had to play it cool and show them they had nothing on me. If I could win the war by attrition, maybe it wouldn’t come to urine alcohol testing.

I had my story all ready to go when my co-workers saw my shaved body.

“Yesterday, the doctor told me I might have …,” what was that called?!
“… homophobia. Fleas could be fatal, so I shaved my body.”

So far so good. Jenny was learning I was no ordinary high school kid. I drank water whenever she was watching just to let her know I was ready for urine alcohol testing too.

That afternoon Jenny came in and told everyone to stop what we were doing.

“I have a surprise for all of you,” she said, pacing. She had been biding her time. The urine alcohol testing game was going to be played out to the bitter end. All I could do was submit to the urine alcohol testing with dignity and let God do the rest.

Jenny paused, enjoying our discomfort.

“You’ve been here long enough to get the job down,” she continued. “The honeymoon is over. You losers are going to start making outbound calls today. Let’s just call this an acid test to see if you can really do this job.”

I had won!

Jenny had seen I could not be intimidated by simple urine alcohol testing. I stared her down and she backed away.

I look back at this experience as a trial by fire. It seemed that earth and hell had combined against me to ruin my reputation and lead me into evil paths. I still don’t know how Nancy and Jenny had executed such a devilish plan. But the innocence of my youth was gone. I was no longer a kid eating raw cookie dough.

I tasted the sweet nectar of alcohol and I’m happy to say I have resisted addiction. I faced my enemies and, ultimately, overcame the shrewdness of urine alcohol testing.

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Mat Moniker is a writer for Innuity.com and a supporter of advanced drug testing research. Learn more about urine alcohol testing at trimegalabs.co.uk

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/health-care-workers-turn-to-alcohol-hair-testing-to-help-recovering-alcoholics.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/health-care-workers-turn-to-alcohol-hair-testing-to-help-recovering-alcoholics.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
How Hair Alcohol Testing Works
As hair grows it absorbs everything we put into our bodies that is fed from the bloodstream. What we absorb is stored as chemical markers that are locked in the hair and show a history like rings on a tree, showing the history of time. These markers, including fatty acid ethyl esters, FAEE’s only occur when ethanol alcohol is consumed. The more alcohol an individual consumes, the greater the concentration of these markers in the hair. Even more useful for alcohol treatment programs is testing for EtG, ethyl glucuronide, a direct metabolite of ethanol which is only detected if alcohol is consumed. For a urine alcohol test, EtG remains present in urine well after the disappearance of ethanol itself, up to five days, and with EtG alcohol testing EtG can show up for several months after a person consumed alcohol last. The reason is because metabolites remain indefinitely in the hair shaft and cannot be removed through any chemical treatment; only shaving one’s head could eliminate the evidence.

A Less Invasion Way to Test Patients
Instead of urine alcohol testing, breath or saliva or even sweat testing that demands personal body fluids, alcohol hair testing only asks for a small sample of hair, taken from the scalp in a discreet environment. This is done by a trained nurse or substance health care monitor who then collects a candidate’s sample discreetly in their home or place of work. No need for random urine samples or inconvenient clinic visits. Besides reducing the demand for intrusive body fluids, it satisfies a need for testing patients who get stage fright or “bashful bladder” under pressure. Alcohol hair testing is considered one of the least evasive substance tests around as well as the most accurate and detailed. For health care workers trying to accurately test alcoholics who are trying to abstain from drinking, with EtG alcohol testing for hair, there is no better substitute for testing patient’s success on the road to recovery.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information regarding alcohol hair testing and EtG alcohol testing, go to Trimega Labs www.hairalcoholtesting.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/breathalyzers-on-prom-night-how-alcohol-testing-in-high-schools-is-becoming-the-norm.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/breathalyzers-on-prom-night-how-alcohol-testing-in-high-schools-is-becoming-the-norm.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
According to sources, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 20. It is estimated that one teen is killed every hour in the United States because of teenage drunk driving. So communities, such as the Pequannock Township High School in New Jersey are doing something about it and demanding random alcohol testing as part of the school program.

Where students feel attacked is how the school system is going about testing. The (EtG), ethyl glucuronide urine test the school is using to test students can prove up to 90 days when the last time the student consumed alcohol. So, if a student was at a party over the weekend, they could be tested on Monday and the results would show if they have consumed alcohol or not. In more recent news, EtG alcohol testing has been developed for hair alcohol testing where a sample of scalp hair is collected from a student and sent to a laboratory where is it then tested for alcohol use. With hair alcohol testing, past alcohol abuse can be measured up to 12 months, depending on the length of the hair sample.

Other findings report that the American Civil Liberties Union says random urine alcohol testing is an invasion of privacy, while in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court in Board of Education of Pottawatomie v. Earls, voted in favor to allow public schools to test students for drugs if they were participating in competitive sports or extra curricular activities. Not otherwise. Student privacy rights vary from state to state which can give greater protection over student’s rights compared to others.

As more research unfolds, newer methods of random alcohol screening could be enforced. Depending on the past police records of students, number of detentions or other behaviors in school could affect the degree of ramifications due to positive alcohol evidence in a student’s sample. As one researcher put it, a phone call home to parents could be the only punishment necessary to prevent under age alcohol consumption in the future.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more in formation about alcohol high school testing or alcohol detection drug service testing go to Trimega Labs

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/why-new-alcohol-testing-devices-are-turning-heads.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/why-new-alcohol-testing-devices-are-turning-heads.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
How Alcohol Hair Testing Works
If a person has been asked to give a hair sample, a certified nurse will make an appointment to come to the person’s home or place of work or school if a clinic is not available. Then a small sample is taken from the base of the head and is then either shipped or delivered to the laboratory where several tests will be performed to see if certain markers show up on the hair shaft. These special markers only appear if the person has been drinking or abusing drugs. The uniqueness about the test is that, for a long time, drug hair testing was available, but there was no such test that was available to show alcohol use over a longer period of time. Now, using a special test called EtG alcohol testing, this test shows a history of abuse instead of hours or at most- a couple days like urine alcohol testing would. Actually, EtG testing can prove up to 12 months of alcohol abuse- which makes this test so unique to employers of certain high profile or mentally stable positions like surgeons, pilots and childcare.

Many times this alcohol detection drug service testingwill be combined with other forms, such as urine alcohol testing or questionnaires and references from family or previous jobs to get an overall assessment. The cost of hair alcohol testing may be slightly higher than a urine sample test but the results far outweigh the latter. Wouldn’t you choose a specialized business that was “truly” substance abuse free over one that didn’t test their employees?

So perhaps, when you are applying for your next job or have to be screened for an athletic sport, they may not be asking you to go into the bathroom with a little cup, they may ask you to remove your hat.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist from Innuity. For more information about Hair alcohol testing Alcohol testing device, Drug follicle hair testing, EtG alcohol testing, Alcohol detection drug service testing, Urine alcohol testing go to www.hairalcoholtesting.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/why-some-parents-are-volunteering-to-take-a-hair-alcohol-test.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/why-some-parents-are-volunteering-to-take-a-hair-alcohol-test.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
The hair alcohol test is exactly how it sounds: a test that proves whether or not you have abused alcohol by using your scalp hair as a sample. Unlike urine alcohol testing, which can only prove whether or not you have abused alcohol within a very small time frame of a week, with significant dilution hindrances affecting the test results, a hair alcohol test can prove notably longer time frame of abuse.

So why are parents eager to comply with this type of test? The hair alcohol test can disprove that someone has a history of alcohol abuse. Say a spouse gave false accusations about the other parent or legal guardian of a child that they were abusing drugs and alcohol and therefore was “not fit” to have custody of the child. A hair alcohol test taken by that person will show up to 12 months of abuse or lack of abuse by a per-month status. Using ethyl glucuronide, (EtG) alcohol testing technology, no other test in the world can give detailed results for hair alcohol testing. EtG alcohol testing allows a scientist to segment testing into months of abuse unlike previous FAEE, testing alone- which only shows alcohol dependency. FAEE or fatty acid ethyl ethers is a patented forensic process which reveals markers that are only exposed if a person has consumed alcohol. The more alcohol consumed the greater amount of FAEE and EtG markers become present in the hair.

This remarkable hair alcohol test is approved in the United States and British courts as viable evidence for proving or disproving whether a person is an abuser of alcohol or is not.

Besides innocent parents accused of being alcoholics, employers for all types of companies who perform drug testing, high school counselors and sports authorities are eager to use this new alcohol testing device to prove or disprove alcohol abuse over a long term basis of a person that was not previously possible before.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information about a hair alcohol test, go to www.hairalcoholtesting.com.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/drug-follicle-hair-testing--the-uproar-over-student-rights.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/drug-follicle-hair-testing--the-uproar-over-student-rights.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Recently, private high schools and many public ones are using drug follicle hair testing technologies to screen students for drugs and alcohol. Public schools get away with the controversial test by making it mandatory only for students participating in extracurricular activities and sports.

Drug Follicle Hair Testing Explained

A series of assessments called FAEE, fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG alcohol testing are done to measure the amount of FAEE and EtG markers that are revealed in the drug follicle hair test. The more alcohol a person has consumed, the more markers will be present on a test. With only a pencil thickness amount of hair cut from the scalp, a drug and hair alcohol testing laboratory can find out what a person’s approximated consumption of alcohol has been up to a 30 day history and if the hair sample is longer, as much as a year of alcohol consumption can be tested.

Recently, the private school, Bishop Kelly High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma decided to approve mandatory drug testing for every student. Because the school is a private school and not a public school, the school can decide to do things a little differently. Due to recent anonymous survey given to its students, the school found that there was indeed a problem among some of its current students. The drug follicle hair testing was then implemented, with the cost of test, around $60 each passed onto the parents. The drug follicle hair testing is a random selection of the student body. No legal action will be taken to any student that happens to come up positive for drugs or alcohol but a counseling session will be required with the parents to see if help can be administered before legal action is needed. The second time the same person is found having abused drugs or alcohol, the student will be asked to leave the school.

What Message Are Teachers and Parents Sending to Their Kids?

Several legal professionals besides outraged kids and parents think that the country was founded on the basis that people were free to make their own choices and that mandatory testing like this already sends a message to students that “you are not trusted” and therefore have to be set under a microscope. This lack of privacy goes against so much of what our country is founded on. Some parents wonder if students will go to extremes to try and deter a potentially positive test result by shaving their heads, drinking harmful solutions or volunteer to quit a school in defense.

Some schools have decided that with $60 per student it is a lot of money and have decided to hire full time security guards to monitor student activity. Other schools have found great success with a solution like drug follicle hair testing for several reasons:
• The test is less evasive than a urine or saliva test
• Less likely to be tampered with
• The test prevents students from experimenting on the weekends
• $60 is worth a year’s worth of evidence

Drug follicle hair testing is quite remarkable, and now alcohol detection in hair is available to schools where it wasn’t a possibility before. The great news about this kind of testing is that it isn’t just to send students into fits of rage, it is also a tool to help police with evidence for drunk drivers, it can be a tool for coaching alcoholics and drunk addicts on the road to recovery and can ensure that employers hire the safest and most sober employees possible- now that is good news.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information regarding drug follicle hair testing go to Trimega Laboratories.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/alcohol-prescreening-for-employees-what-used-to-be-considered-a-waste-of-money-is-now.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/alcohol-prescreening-for-employees-what-used-to-be-considered-a-waste-of-money-is-now.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600
Recent new discoveries in alcohol testing have suddenly changed how far employers can test someone for alcohol abuse. Alcohol hair testing has opened a window of opportunity for prescreening employers that wasn’t previously available.

Alcohol hair testing is a fairly new discovery. Hair drug testing has been around for awhile, but until now, urine alcohol testing was the way to test a person for alcohol consumption. Hair testing for drugs use to be the only type of hair testing that had been done, because alcohol testing for hair wasn’t available. Types of alcohol prescreening commonly used before alcohol hair testing and often still used today are urine alcohol testing and saliva testing. Here is the pros and cons of each:

Urine alcohol testing:
• Inexpensive
• Provides ability to test for several different types of substances
• The specimen can be adulterated, substituted, or diluted
• Has a small window of detection
• Urine can take up to 2 hours before alcohol is present in the system
• With EtG testing, urine alcohol tests up to 80 hours only
• Intrusive and rather embarrassing form of testing

Saliva testing:
• Doesn’t show metabolites in the saliva as long as they do in the urine or hair
• Provides a relatively short window of detection, approximately 10 to 24 hours.
• Is taken under supervision to deter tampering
• Sample is less invasive then a urine sample

Hair alcohol testing was developed by an English and German team of scientists who have found a way, through the discovery of using a unique series of assessments called FAEE, fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG, or ethyl glucuronide EtG alcohol testing to measure the amount of FAEE and EtG markers that are revealed in the tests only found in a person’s hair if they have consumed alcohol.

With this new discovery, these scientists found a way to test for long term alcohol abuse using a hair sample which was never done before. Prior to this, only drug abuse could be found in hair samples, but never alcohol.

With only an inch and a half of hair cut from the scalp of a person, a hair alcohol testing laboratory can find out what a person’s approximated consumption of alcohol has been up to a 30 day history and if the hair sample is longer, as much as a year of alcohol consumption can be tested. The markers can be identified in days, weeks and months. The more alcohol a person has consumed, the more markers will be present on a test, which remain indefinitely.

Alcohol Hair Testing
• Reduces re-occurring random drug testing,
• Is much less invasive than either urine alcohol testing or saliva testing
• By far proves more than a weeks worth of abuse
• Only shaving one’s head will affect the results of the test as there would not be any evidence which to test

The choice is much more cost effective, less intrusive and more accurate for employers. More and more employers, social workers and government agencies are turning to hair alcohol testing for precise, professional and tactful testing over urine alcohol testing.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content producer for Innuity. For more information about alcohol hair testing, EtG alcohol testing go to Trimega Laboratories.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/high-school-kids-and-the-community-are-speaking-out-about-random-drug-and-alcohol-testing-in-high-schools.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/high-school-kids-and-the-community-are-speaking-out-about-random-drug-and-alcohol-testing-in-high-schools.html Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600 alcohol high school testing is becoming more and more common in American high schools across the state. Using new drug and alcohol testing technology makes it harder for students to tamper with the results or use some other device to deter the outcome.

New findings discovered by a team of English and German scientists at Trimega Laboratories have found a way to test for alcohol abuse up to a 12 month history. Meaning, instead of using a urine sample from a student to test for drugs or alcohol, schools can randomly choose a student who will then provide a sample of scalp hair to go through a series of tests to determine how much alcohol and drugs have been consumed, as well as the last time they consumed them.

EtG alchol testing testing, EtG or ethyl glucuronide, is a sensitive test using a urine sample but it will only prove up to 80 days of drug and alcohol use, with hair alcohol testing, up to 12 months of use can be found. Some parents and students find this kind of testing both great news as well as an intrusion of privacy.

Obviously, more students than parents are speaking out against the random testing, claiming that what they partake in over a weekend, perhaps at a wedding or Saturday night party is their own business and that there is a “real” problem if students are coming to school or school events high and or intoxicated.

Some parents, school counselors and other people in the community think that hair alcohol testing in schools is a great idea for prevention of worse problems that could come out of early alcohol abuse, save kids from drinking and driving or other dangerous acts under the influence of drugs and alcohol as well as set a standard for high school athletics. Other parents feel that it is an abuse of too much power into someone’s life. Some other parents think that their child could be wrongly accused simply because many household products contain small amounts of alcohol like mouthwash, cold medicine, hand sanitizers and interfere with the test.

Principals and Superintendents find that random drug testing can help prevent students coming to school functions under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Whereas parents feel that if they are concerned that their child is abusing drugs or alcohol that they should be the ones in charge of testing their child, with a take home drug test from the corner store, for example.

One thing is for certain, the EtG alcohol testing technology has helped employers find sober employees, social workers help parents gain custody of their children and put proven guilty criminals behind bars. Whether or not the high schools in your area will promote random EtG alcohol screening will depend on your school’s district. You can find out more by going to your school district’s webpage.

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Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity. For more information about EtG alchol testing or alcohol high school testing go to www.hairalcoholtesting.com.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/health/fitness/why-hair-alcohol-testing-is-better-than-urine-alcohol-testing.html http://www.articletrader.com/health/fitness/why-hair-alcohol-testing-is-better-than-urine-alcohol-testing.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600 hair alcohol testing is the new alcohol and drug screening technology that is proving the sobriety of parents, convicting the guilty of high alcohol abuse during the moment of a crime and giving confidence to employers to hire safe pilots, surgeons and child care workers. How is hair alcohol testing better than urine alcohol testing?

When urine alcohol testing use to be the only proven technology to show whether a person has consumed alcohol, it limited the validity of the results because alcohol evaporation rate is extremely quick, not allowing testers to accurately account for blood alcohol concentrations in urine alcohol testing.

According to Alliance for Worldwide Alcohol Research and Education, 5-10% of ingested alcohol is excreted unchanged in urine, sweat, and expired air. The remainder is turned into carbon dioxide and water. For example, a shot of 80 proof alcohol, a 4 ounce glass of wine or 12 ounces of beer will be completely cleared from the body in approximately 1.75-3.5 hours.

For that reason alone, urine alcohol testing hasn’t been able to fully calculate a person’s accurate blood alcohol concentration. Now, hair alcohol testing is helping to convict the guilty as well as the innocent.

How Hair Alcohol Testing Works

With only an inch and a half of hair cut from the scalp of a person, a hair alcohol testing laboratory can find out what a person’s approximated consumption of alcohol has been up to a 30 day history and if the hair sample is longer, as much as a year of alcohol consumption can be tested. A series of assessments called FAEE, fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG, or ethyl glucuronide EtG alcohol testing are done to measure the amount of FAEE and EtG markers that are revealed in the tests only found in a person’s hair if they have consumed alcohol. The more alcohol a person has consumed, the more markers will be present on a test, which remain indefinitely.

Only shaving one’s head will affect the results of the test as there would not be any evidence which to test. Other body hair can be tested but the concentration of blood to the rest of the body’s hair does not give an accurate test result. Only scalp hair reveals an accurate enough assessment. Bleach, hair dye or other external contaminants will not affect the outcome of the test.

Hair alcohol testing is a fairly new discovery. Hair drug testing has been around for awhile, but until now, urine alcohol testing was the way to test a person for alcohol consumption. Hair alcohol testing reduces re-occurring random drug testing, hair alcohol testing is less invasive and by far proves more than a weeks worth of abuse.

More and more employers and government agencies are turning to hair alcohol testing for accurate, professional and tactful testing over urine alcohol testing.

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Avi Lasarow has written numerous articles on Drug and Alcohol Testing in the UK. He also is the author of the book ‘Who is Really Who?”. For more information about hair alcohol testing, Urine alcohol testing and alcohol detection drug testing go to www.hairalcoholtesting.com.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]>