Urine| Hair Follicle | Oral Fluid | Blood | ETG
Hair analysis is recognized as an effective method for identifying substance use, including drugs and alcohol. By capturing biomarkers within the strands, hair offers an extended record of substance exposure. When hair is collected near the scalp, it can reflect drug or alcohol consumption over about a 3-month timeframe. The collection process is straightforward, challenging to falsify, and convenient for transport.
A 1.5-inch section containing around 200 hair strands (approximately the width of a #2 pencil) nearest to the scalp provides 100mg, which is optimal for both screening and verifying results. For EtG, additional analyses, and/or tests exceeding 10 panels, a 150mg specimen is advisable. It's suggested to measure the hair on a jeweler’s scale. If no scalp hair is available, a comparable quantity of body hair may be gathered. By head hair, we mean scalp hair exclusively. Body hair encompasses all other types (facial, axillary, etc.).
Process Overview
The primary stages in lab processing for drug test analysis include Accessioning, Screening, Extraction, and Confirmation.
Accessioning entails initial sample entry into a lab’s system, verifying the sample's proper sealing and shipment, assigning a LAN (Laboratory Accessioning Number), and completing any necessary data entry absent in an electronic chain of custody.
Screening conducts an initial rapid assessment for substance use. While Screening serves as a cost-efficient exclusionary procedure for most samples, positives require confirmation for legal validity. Samples with potential positive results in Screening necessitate secondary verification.
When Screening yields a presumptive positive result, additional hair is drawn from the original sample and prepared for Extraction. This stage isolates substances from hair at significantly lower concentrations than other methods (e.g., urine or oral fluid), necessitating a more complex procedure.
GC/MS, GC/MS/MS, or LC/MS/MS confirm any positive Screening outcomes. Prior to Confirmation, samples are cleansed if necessary. The complete lab process from Accessioning to Confirmation is supervised under CAP's Hair designation and ISO / IEC 17025 accreditation standards.
Advantages of hair drug testing:
Limitations:
Note: Although referred to as "hair follicle tests", these tests examine the hair strand rather than the follicle beneath the scalp
Why Hair Follicle Testing Beats Urine Testing in Offerman, GA
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