More and more workplaces are turning to hair drug testing. It is an effective, reliable and accurate test to determine if an individual has used drugs over the past few months by examining hair follicles. With approximately 3-4cm length of hair, the lab can analyse the strands and show a timeline of drug use going back 3 months.
Previously, urine drug testing had been the most common method of sample gathering for many workplaces. However, drugs like cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamines and opiates are generally undetectable through urine 3 days after any drug use but the detection period for hair is approximately 90 days. Through taking a few strands of hair we can provide the employer with a accurate report that not only shows what different drugs have been taken but also provides a clearer picture showing the level of use.
How Does Hair Drug Testing Work?
Hair is a static protein, which means after the drugs metabolise in the bloodstream, they become stationary in the hair shaft and they remain there until the hair is cut. On average, hair on the head grows about 1cm per month and about 1-week after drug use, the hair has grown sufficiently long enough to be tested.
The longer the hair sample, the further back into the drug history you can look. For example, a 3 cm hair sample can let you see 3 months of drug or alcohol use. It is easy to segment the hair sample to determine drug use month by month for a detailed and concise drug test.
For example, if the 3 cm sample is cut into 3 separate 1 cm segments, each one can be analysed for the presence of drugs. Therefore, the hair drug test can show periods of abuse or periods of abstinence of the given time taken from the sample.
If the individual does not have long enough hair on their head, body hair can be used instead. Segmentation of the sample is not possible with body hair samples because individual body hairs grow at dramatically different rates. Therefore, body hair must be tested as 1 segment, regardless of length.
Once a hair sample is tested a comprehensive lab report is produced detailing:
• The presence and use of drugs
• Identification of drugs
• Negative result proves abstinence for the period tested
• Accurate historical record of substance abuse
What Are The Benefits of Hair Drug Testing for the Workplace?
The primary benefit of hair drug testing is that it provides a more reliable history of drug use. It gives an employer a bigger window of detection in addition to differentiating between a casual on-off user and a chronic substance user. Additional advantages include:
• Can Show a Timeline of Drug Use
• Non-invasive and Easy to Collect Samples
• Easy to store samples
• International standard guidelines
• Different drugs can be detected
• Not affected by shampoos or bleach
• The least risk of any Tampering
• Less time and money wasted on contesting allegations
• Detects the presence of drugs, even after they become undetectable using other samples and methods
Although urine analysis is often sufficient, it generally only shows drug use that has occurred within 2-3 days and there are concerns that false positives are possible with urine testing because of their hypersensitivity. Hair drug tests have become the preferred method of drug testing an individual because they can be performed on virtually any individual and are considerably more effective than other methods.