Hair Drug Testing
Drugs in the bloodstream get trapped in the hair shaft as it grows in the root follicle. Since hair is inert protein, the drugs remain trapped there until the hair is cut. About a week after drug use the hair has grown enough to be cropped close to the scalp, providing the perfect history of drug abuse. A hair drug test can detct these.
The hair drug test process has been proven in a court of law many times, and strict procedures are adopted to prevent surface contamination, ethnic differences, or variations in hair growth rate. The usual sample is tested for a three month history, but tests can be done month by month if needed. Just a small snippet of about 50 hairs are used, to a special procedure which avoids any signs of hair being taken from the donor.
The hair drug test detects drugs ingested into a person's body which ends up in hair follicles. The target drug or drug metabolite are deposited in the hair follicle and then become entrapped in the core of the hair shaft. Normal growth rates for human hair are about half an inch per month.
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Hair Drug Test
The Hair Drug Test is a simple sample collection process. The ideal sample for a Hair Drug Test is somewhere in the region of 50 strands of hair, one and a half inches in length, and cut a quarter of an inch from the scalp. The laboratory will melt the hair and then perform an initial immunoassay.
Hair Drug Tests for the five most common drugs; that is, amphetamine and mephamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, opiates, and Phencyclides (PHPs).
If any of these initial tests turns out to be positive, the laboratory will automatically confirm the results with a second Hair Drug Test, a gas chromatography or mass spectrometry (GC/MS) laboratory Hair Drug Test - this is considered to be the gold standard of tests, and the only Hair Drug Test which is certain to achieve accurate test results.
Generally it takes five days or so for drugs to show up in a person's hair, and they will continue to be detectable in new hair for somewhere in the region of 90 days.
Most hair tests are five panel tests, that is to say, they will screen for the five common drugs mentioned above. The two primary advantages of a Hair Drug Test are that it detects traces dating back for up to 90 days, and secondly it is virtually tamper-proof.
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