Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair screening is now recognized as an influential method for identifying drug and alcohol consumption. The hair retains a prolonged record of alcohol and other substances by embedding biomarkers within the fibers of the hair as it grows. When hair is collected near the scalp, it can reveal a detection span of up to around 90 days for alcohol and drugs. Hair is easy to gather, somewhat resistant to tampering, and simple to transport.
A 1.5-inch segment consisting of approximately 200 hairs (comparable to the girth of a #2 pencil) closest to the scalp provides 100mg of hair, which is the preferred quantity for analysis and confirmation. For EtG, additional tests, or those with more than 10 panels, 150mg of the sample is advised. We suggest weighing the sample on a jeweler’s scale. In instances where scalp hair is not present, an equivalent portion of body hair may be used. When mentioning head hair, we specifically mean scalp hair. Body hair encompasses all other types of hair (facial, underarm, etc.).
Process Overview
Four primary stages are involved in the lab processing of a drug test: Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning includes the initiation of a sample's processing into the lab's system. This ensures the sample was correctly sealed and transported, assigns a random LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and completes any supplementary data entry absent from an electronic chain of custody system.
Screening conducts an initial rapid assessment for illicit drug usage. While Screening is a cost-effective method to negate drug usage for most samples, a positive screening necessitates verification to be valid in a legal context. Any samples shown as presumptively positive during Screening require further confirmation.
If Screening indicates a presumptive positive, more hair is extracted from the initial sample and prepped for Extraction. Here, drugs are isolated from hair at concentrations lower than other techniques (e.g., urine or saliva), rendering hair drug screening a challenging process.
Validation of any positive screening is accomplished through GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS. All presumptively positive samples are cleansed before confirmation when needed. The complete lab process from Accessioning to Confirmation is audited under both the CAP (College of American Pathologists) Hair classification and ISO / IEC 17025 certification.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Although often called "hair follicle tests", the actual test examines the hair strand rather than the follicle below the skin.
Why Hair Follicle Testing Beats Urine Testing in Danielsville, GA
Extended Detection Window in Danielsville, GA
Tamper-Resistant Testing Method in Danielsville, GA
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Simple, Confidential Process in Danielsville, GA
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