Is Hair Alcohol Testing Safe?

Is Hair Alcohol Testing Safe?

Hair alcohol testing is a relatively new form of drug and alcohol testing, but with all of the other forms of testing out there, how does it compare and is it safe?
 
How it Works

A small sample of hair is taken from the scalp; it is usually right underneath by the scalp and close to the hairline. Then it is put through a patented forensic process using a liquid gas chromatograph to look for fatty acid ethyl ethers, or FAEE and ethyl glucuronide, or EtG markers. These markers are only produced when alcohol is in the bloodstream. The more alcohol a person consumes the greater amount of FAEE and EtG markers are present in the hair. It is completely safe and sanitary. Just like getting a haircut, it is not like getting a massage by any means, but it is pain-free.

No hair color, bleaching or physical damage, (that wouldn’t be obvious) can conceal the truth of what your body has consumed. Only shaving one’s head is the only way one can truly remove the evidence. In fact, everything that you put into your body is revealed in your head hair. When something is ingested into your body, it breaks down and gets into your bloodstream which feeds your hair. Body hair doesn’t reveal as much because you’re blood is reaching out to all of your bodies hair and true amounts of substance abuse get diluted in the process. With scalp hair, however, true concentrations of drug or alcohol abuse are found.

The interesting thing about hair alcohol testing is the span of time that it can reveal. A urine sample can prove the evidence of alcohol only for a limited time. Alcohol evaporates quickly in breath as well. That is why a police man or woman can detect the current levels of blood alcohol in a person at the scene, but it is impossible to get an accurate account of abuse days or weeks later. With hair alcohol testing, evidence of a week prior can be detected! Did you drink two weeks ago? That can be revealed months later.
 
Least Intrusive Method For Testing

Unlike urine alcohol testing or saliva swabbing in one’s mouth, hair alcohol testing can be performed out in the open if need be and does not require any doctor’s office or time away from work, school or the like. A certified nurse/ practitioner can come right to the person’s home or office.

Employers are investing in this technology to make sure the person they hire is fit for a technical or mentally demanding job. When an employer can feel good about hiring a surgeon who has a clean record, for example, they are going to hire that person before anyone else who may not have a squeaky clean record.
If you are a lawyer or if you work in social services and would like to show that your client is not an alcoholic and is fit to have custody of their child, hair alcohol testing can prove or as equally important, disprove the history or lack of alcohol abuse.
When a person is going through treatment for help with alcohol abuse, alcohol hair testing can show the progress of their rehabilitation process.

More and more schools, employers and social and government workers are turning to hair alcohol testing for safe, reliable and un-intrusive method for drug and alcohol testing.