Testing for Drugs in the Work Place is Worldwide, not Just in U.s

January 4th, 2010

The United States prides itself on cleanliness, structure and law abiding practices, not to mention striving to win the “war on drugs.” America isn’t alone however. More and more countries are cracking down on deadbeats and screening their employees, students and suspects for drug and alcohol abuse.

Besides Canada and the United Kingdom, drug testing employees is becoming more common in several countries around the world, like China, Mexico, Spain, Italy and more. Pre-screening high school children and drug testing for evidence in court cases are among the other reasons drug and alcohol testing is becoming more commonplace around the world. Screening athletes in pro-sports teams and of course the Olympic Games may have been the catalyst to educate the world that illegal drugs are widespread in so many industries. Countries wanting to seriously engage with global markets are doing everything it takes to meet the high demands of qualified companies, which means a clean bill of health.

Competition for jobs, team placement and honest evidence in court cases are also common factors the whole world wants. When it comes to accurate testing, it seems there are only a few drug and alcohol detection drug service testing devices that make the grade. One of them is hair alcohol testing. Hair testing is probably the most accurate drug and alcohol test that tests abuse over an extended period of time.

What Hair Testing is and How it 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. A test called EtG testing is a sensitive test used specifically for testing for alcohol. EtG, ethyl glucuronide, a direct metabolite of ethanol which is only detected if alcohol is consumed.

Why Urine Alcohol Testing Doesn’t Stand Up to Hair Alcohol Testing

The EtG testing works great for urinalysis, but only for a short amount of time. For a urine alcohol test, EtG remains present in urine well after the disappearance of ethanol itself, up to five days- but because of evaporation and the body’s own flushing system, only with hair drug and alcohol testing will EtG 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, cleanse or manipulation.

More and more employers and government agencies are turning to hair alcohol testing for accurate, professional and tactful testing over urine alcohol testing. Even though hair testing may cost slightly more than urinalysis, agencies world wide are saving money by testing once and testing accurately. Today the off chance that an employee’s urinalysis was accurate or inaccurate is not a risk many employers are willing to take.

Having the piece of mind knowing the history of abuse of one’s employee is a common language of relief we can all understand.