Information on Hair Sample Testing
Posted July 31st, 2009 by adminDrug tests and in particular hair drug testing is becoming far more commonplace, especially across western Europe and North America. This method of drug testing has a significant advantage over other detection methods such as saliva, urine and blood, in that it provides a far greater period of time for which drugs can be detected. (Referred to as the detection window). It is possible to detect drugs for several months - even years if the hair has been allowed to grow for that long. Most commonly however, tests require 90 day detection: This compares to typically 4-5 days for fluid based testing (or in severe cases of marijuana misuse, 28 days)
Approximately fifty hair follicles are required for successful hair testing. This equates to the thickness of the end of a shoelace, meaning that most people would show no obvious signs that a sample had been taken unless their hair is particularly short.
The cost of hair testing is higher than urine based tests - which are the only other viable method of achieving top-quality test results. Testing blood samples is not widely available partly due to the challenges in taking a sample in the first instance.
A typical hair test costs around £60-£70 for preparation of the sample (which basically means turning the hair from a solid to a liquid) and then a further £40-50 per drug type required for detection. This compares to an approximate charge of £60-75 for laboratory testing of urine which will pick up substances of misuse across all drug classes.
The biggest question asked of course is how to pass a hair drug test. Very simply, there is only one definite way in which to do this - Don’t take drugs!
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