Hair samples are analyzed chemically to determine the usage of alcohol. Even after exposure to air, water, soil, dust and toxic environment, the hair samples can clearly determine the alcohol usage. This establishes and verifies persistent alcohol abusers. Hair alcohol test is mostly used for this purpose in the hair drug screen process.

When there is excess consumption of alcohol, the level of alcohol in the blood stream increases. Some markers which are called as fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE’S) and ethyl glucuronide (EtG) are produced in the blood stream due to alcohol consumption.

These markers are absorbed by the hair for their growth therefore they are detected in hair drug tests. The people have other drugs consumed, but the hair testing procedure looks only for direct products of ethanol products. Main part of alcohol is absorbed as water and carbon dioxide.

SO the concentrations of these fatty acid ethyl esters which include, ethyl palmitate, ethyloleate, ethyl myristate and ethyl stearate are used as the indicators of the alcohol consumption and can be found in hair drug screen test.

Amount of alcohol found in hair are measured in nanograms where one nanogram is equal to one billionth of gram. But due to the improvisation in the modern technology, such small amounts can also be detected in hair drug test.

If a hair segment which was analyzed has an EtG value greater than 50ng, the person is considered to be an alcohol abuser. Human hair averagely grows at a rate of 1-cm per month approximately. It is because of the relatively stable binding of EtG into the hair shaft. So it is possible to detect the presence of EtG in hair accurately, even after a long period. Even if all other drug tests fail the hair testing process is going to help with identifying the abused drug accurately, not alone with alcohol.

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Suggested Reading:
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Tags: hair alcohol test, hair drug screen, hair drug screen test, hair drug test, hair drug tests

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 am and is filed under Alcohol test, Drug Testing Kits, General, drug screen test, hair drug test. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.