Posts Tagged ‘Drug And Alcohol’

It’s No Crime Scene at Your Office- It’s Just Drug Follicle Hair Testing

If your boss has asked your office to give blood, urinalysis or breathalyzer test for random drug testing, it’s no wonder that one might feel violated on top of grossed out. Since alcohol detection drug testing often involves body fluids, you may wonder if there is a better way to test employees for drugs and alcohol that is less intrusive. It’s called drug follicle hair testing

It may seem rather strange to test one’s hair for drugs and alcohol when drugs and alcohol are ingested into the body- not coated on one’s hair, but what scientists have found is quite remarkable. Since your hair and nail cells grow from your body, it makes sense that whatever nutrients, vitamins and all the other items that are ingested into your body- in turn, make up the building blocks of your hair and nails. Unlike blood, breath and urine where one can test for drugs and alcohol from a short amount of time after ingestion, your scalp is like a diary- where a scientist can read every drug and alcohol entry. Or, just as importantly, the lack of entries.

What Is Drug Follicle Hair Testing?

The rate that alcohol leaves the body in hours and minutes makes it extremely difficult to judge how much a person has consumed and how long ago it was that the person consumed it. What else is difficult to uncover is the history someone has of alcohol abuse. With as much as an inch and a half of hair cut from the scalp of a person, a hair alcohol testing laboratory can find out what a person’s approximated consumption of alcohol has been up to a 30 day history and if the hair sample is longer, as much as a year of alcohol consumption can be tested. A series of assessments called FAEE, fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG alcohol testing are done to measure the amount of FAEE and EtG markers that are revealed in the tests. The more alcohol a person has consumed, the more markers will be present on a test.

A Non-Intrusive Test

When compared to the bodily fluid demands of previous testing, hair alcohol testing is fairly non-intrusive. The samples are taken behind closed doors by a professional nurse, hired by the company who comes to your home or business and collects the sample beneath the rest of your hair, or at least close to the scalp. It is then taken to the lab to be tested.

•    Less contamination and fraud

•    A witness can actually be there in the same room as the sample delivered

•    No appointment outside of work or school is necessary

Instead of your office resembling a CSI episode demanding body fluids several times a year- have your employees tested once in a blue moon. With hair alcohol testing, unless your employees or students wax every inch of hair off your body and shave your head before their test, every nutrient, vitamin, drug or glass of alcohol will soon be revealed.



The Benefits of a Home Drug Test

The issue of substance abuse has always been a concern in many ways. Until recently, drinking alcohol was not generally considered to be a social disease, unless a person had extreme problems with it. Regular consumption of alcohol was acceptable in most social circles, and in fact still is. The risks of drinking to a person’s physical and mental health are just now being accepted and discussed.

Drug use, on the other hand, has been considered risky behavior in most cultures throughout history. Although some drug use has been acceptable for certain cultures as part of religious or spiritual rituals, the problem of drug addiction goes back many centuries to the opium dens in China and other parts of Asia as well as cocaine and heroin addiction in the West, dating as far back as the 18th and 19th century.

Today, the problem of substance abuse is attracting more attention not only from law enforcement and legislators, but especially from employers, schools, and parents who are concerned about the increases being reported in drug and alcohol use. New standards are being mandated in the workplace and in homes and schools to address this problem and to regulate it.

While the standard practice of businesses and other institutions is to collect the samples and then send them to a laboratory for testing, this may not often be feasible to the individual person for economic reasons as well as a lack of time that is required to wait for results from a testing facility. That is why many people are turning to the home drug test as a viable solution.

The advantages of a home drug test are many, especially when it is used as a deterrent in a drug-free program that has been adopted to safeguard a child or to encourage someone to maintain a healthier lifestyle. Random drug testing in such an environment can reap rewarding benefits by instilling hesitancy in the subject of the program to indulge in drug use.

Although the results of a home drug test do not carry the extent of accuracy that laboratory tests can guarantee, the level of detection of drugs and other known controlled substances in a person’s system is substantial enough to signal the verified presence of these substances. This in itself is reason enough to include a home drug test in any prevention program.

Another benefit in using a home drug test is their inherent ease of use and the sterile application process. Since the tests use saliva, urine, and hair follicle samples for testing the tests are considered safe and non-invasive. All that is required is a relatively small amount of the sample and about five minutes to wait for the results. Many urine tests are self-sealing and therefore sanitary, and a personal protection kit which includes a pair of sterilized gloves and a sample container, can be obtained to administer the test.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and it is this attitude, combined with the regular use of a home drug test, which can ensure a successful drug prevention program.



Drug Testing in Schools

Drug Testing Programs in Schools are measures that teachers and administrators of a school put into place in order to discourage drug use by students. School districts saw widespread implementation of comprehensive Drug and Alcohol policies starting in the mid-1980s. Although small town school districts have generally been slower to adopt these measures, teenage drug use has not spared rural and suburban schools either.

There are many pros and cons in the school drug testing programs. Some say that the main purpose of school drug testing is not to catch kids using drugs, but to prevent them from ever using drugs, illegal or not. Once teenagers are using drugs it is much harder for them to break their addiction. If by testing the athletes or other school leaders, we can get them to say no to drugs, it will be easier for other kids to say no.

Reasons for Student Drug Testing:

· Testing gives students a chance to say “No to Drugs” when approached to use drugs.

· Student drug testing is important because children become addicted more rapidly than adults and their recovery is less likely.

· Students have a right to safe and drug-free learning environments. School administrators need reasonable tools to stop drug users and drug dealers from ruining school for everyone.

· Testing gives parents an opportunity for intervention and treatment. Parents have the right to send their kids to drug-free schools. The thought of sending their kids to a school where drugs are rampant scares parents. Drug testing helps keep our kids safe.

· The intent of this program is not to punish students. The goal is for the drug user to straighten his or her life out. The schools use drug testing as a tool to deter drug use and help students to get drug education and/or counseling. The results are not turned over to law enforcement.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1995 (in Vernonia v. Acton) that schools could randomly test student athletes who are not suspected of drug use. The Court also stated that as school athletes routinely face mandatory physicals and other similar invasions of privacy, they have lower expectations of privacy than the average student. The Court specified that its decision should not be seen as a justification for further expansion of drug testing programs. In 2002 (the Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls) it was ruled in Supreme Court that all students who participate in voluntary activities, like cheerleading, band, or debate, could be subjected to random tests as well.

It’s not a trust issue it’s a health and safety issue. We are talking about kids here. Schools that have drug-testing programs makes atmosphere become more positive. In addition, drug test results are used for counseling purposes and are not turned over to law enforcement.



Conducting a Home Drug Test

Many people are concerned about drug use today. There are different reasons for this concern. Some people work for companies that conduct random drug and alcohol tests for safety reasons according to company policy. Parents may be concerned about the influence of drugs and alcohol on their children. Family members might need to monitor a loved one to help them maintain a drug and alcohol free lifestyle.

A home drug test is a safe and reassuring method to accomplish any of these goals. It should be noted that while a number of drugs can be detected by these tests, there is only one way to insure results that will satisfy the requirements that most employers have in their company policies. A CLIA certified laboratory has the equipment that can conduct these types of tests under the strict guidelines mandated by law.

However, if a person is interested in testing themselves or a loved one as a preliminary check before a random drug test or as a way to monitor someone’s activities, then a home drug test will be of great value. Although the results will not necessarily pass the stringent standards set by law, they will indicate the presence of a variety of substances that may be of concern.

The methods of testing at home that are considered to provide instant results are the saliva test and the urinalysis tests. These two tests provide results within a few minutes and can be conducted in the privacy of the home. The hair follicle test, which is the most extensive in its procedure, requires a sample to be sent to a CLIA certified laboratory.

The home drug test using saliva as the test specimen, simply requires a saliva sample to be placed on a collection spoon that will indicate the level of drugs present in the body. This method will produce results in five minutes and will indicate the presence of four different drugs used in the past 24 hours.

The urine home drug test comes in two types of kits. One kit provides a sample collection container and a separate test cassette which is placed directly into a cup containing the urine. The other type of urine test provides a self-contained cup that integrates the test into it – No dipping, no mess. This type also has a temperature sensor that indicates whether or not the sample is actually at body temperature.

The urinalysis kits also produce results within five minutes, and both can test for the presence of up to ten different drugs that have been used in the last 72 to 84 hours. Both the saliva home drug test and the urinalysis tests are non-intrusive.

The hair follicle test, because of the extensive testing done, requires a sample to be sent to a laboratory. This home drug test will indicate the presence of many different drugs and can detect their use going back to three months in the past. The results can only be accessed by the person sending in the sample, so it is a safe and secure method of testing.



Is Alcohol and Drug Testing Really Worth the Cost for Your Business?

You can’t put a price on your company’s name as a reputable provider of safe services. Don’t jeopardize your company or school’s credibility- assure your clients and rest assure yourself that you have responsible employees with clean records.

Crucial Positions Where People May Need Mandatory Alcohol and Drug Testing

•    Childcare

•    Pilots

•    Teachers

•    Machinists

•    Bus or Train Drivers

•    Captains

How Much is Your Employees Safety Worth or The People They Affect?

When it comes to safety, are all jobs alike? Would you mind if your landscaper were slightly inebriated more than the pilot of the plane you just boarded? When it comes to certain jobs, there are some jobs you may feel deserve alcohol and drug screening everyday. As an employer or business owner, you may be thinking, can I afford this? Can you afford not to?

Drug and Alcohol Testing is More Affordable Than You Think

Previously, hair testing was only able to test employees for drug use and now, with recent findings by Trimega Laboratories, a team of British and German scientists, they have found a way to prove whether a person had consumed drugs or alcohol recently or weeks ago. Findings indicate hair testing to be more accurate in determining a person’s alcohol and drug history over other methods.

Now that new developments in drug follicle hair testing have been proven to reveal long-term drug and alcohol abuse, the question remains- what is the price of piece of mind? With new advancements in hair alcohol testing, only an inch worth of scalp hair can prove up to 30 days of drug and alcohol abuse. One test providing both drugs and alcohol abuse results save you from having to perform more than one test!

Hair Alcohol and Drug Testing Described

When compared to the bodily fluid demands of previous testing, hair alcohol testing is fairly non-intrusive. The samples are taken by a professional nurse, who comes to your home or business and discreetly collects the hair sample close to the scalp.

It is then taken to the lab to be tested. A series of assessments called FAEE, fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG alcohol testing are done to measure the amount of FAEE and EtG markers that are revealed in the tests. The more alcohol a person has consumed, the more markers will be present on a test.

The rate that alcohol leaves the body in only hours and minutes makes it extremely difficult to judge how much a person has consumed and how long ago it was that the person consumed it. Hair alcohol testing and hair drug testing are also close to impossible to tamper with. Bleach, hair dye or other external contaminants will not affect the outcome of the test. Only shaving one’s head will affect the results of the test as there would not be any evidence which to test.

When thinking whether or not you should roll the dice on prescreening employees or performing random drug tests, think of it this way, would you bet everything you invested in your job on one person’s mess up drinking on the job, perhaps costing you time and money, but what if that person were to affect a life? A piece of mind is priceless.



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