Hair on Drugs?
What does your employees’ hair say about their drug use?
A new study shows that drug tests that utilize hair samples identify ten times as many drug users as traditional urine tests.
Hair Better?
According to Quest Diagnostics, new data to be released Friday shows that hair tests can detect a pattern of cocaine and methamphetamine use dating back as far as three months. Urine tests typically only detect use in the past one to three days. As such, urine tests are acceptable for detecting if drugs were a factor in a workplace incident but may allow applicants to avoid detection by stopping use a few days before testing.
The new data shows that cocaine was detected in 3 of every 1,000 urine tests but in 32 of every 1,000 hair tests. Methamphetamine showed up in 1 out of 1,000 urine tests but 9 times in hair tests.
Drugs Dropping?
Both urine and hair tests show a significant drop in workplace drug use in recent years. For example, urine tests show a 57% decrease in cocaine use in the past five years. Hair tests show a 36% drop. In fact, Quest Diagnostics reports that no drugs of any kind have shown an increase in workplace use in recent years.
What’s the Cost?
Urine tests typically cost between $20-30. Hair tests usually cost about twice as much.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Gas chromatograph and other hair testing do not take into account ANY time factor(s). Did drugs 2 years ago and haven’t shaved your head since? You just lost a potential job, using a hair test.
January 15th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Despicable. Judge me on my work, not the fact that I smoke a joint or two on the weekends. I find it disgusting not only that employers are using these types of methods, but that there are people out there making a living off of taking away someone else’s.