Nurses Recovery
Published Sep 1, 2018
Has anyone ever used a synthetic urine specimen???
TexNurse777
35 Posts
Gee, I'm so glad to see so many non-judgmental, kind responses
Anywho...off the subject-- if you use alcohol based hand sanitizer, can enough alcohol REALLY be absorbed to cause a positive test??? We have the nonalcohol based hand sanitizer at work, but that just doesn't do it for me. I need it to have alcohol to believe it's working.
Possum_RN
113 Posts
Gee, I'm so glad to see so many non-judgmental, kind responses Anywho...off the subject-- if you use alcohol based hand sanitizer, can enough alcohol REALLY be absorbed to cause a positive test??? We have the nonalcohol based hand sanitizer at work, but that just doesn't do it for me. I need it to have alcohol to believe it's working.
Eh? I've never heard of the alcohol sanitizer causing a positive test? I mean, if that were the case, ALL of us would be failing (I hope, unless you're in the school of soap-and-water-every-time)? And c'mon you HAVE to admit, the question is highly suspicious. If it's something that is causing you stress and threatening your livelihood, please seek help -no one should live their lives fearful that they are one random test away from financial ruin, and every patient deserves a nurse with a clear head. If you really are just curious... no, synthetic pee will not work.
Well, I'm not as angelic as everyone commenting thus far. I used to smoke pot (Disclaimer: over a decade ago! I began college life as an art major -it was practically a requirement. I'm long-since clean), so I know a fair few who have tried different things. None of them worked. Detox drinks, synthetic pee, masking agents, etc....all a scam praying on frightened people. I've seen people do some craaaazy things to scam a test, and only one worked...but it's so insane and gross, I don't feel the need to mention it here. Why stress yourself that way? No drug is that good.
Kel65, MSN, RN
315 Posts
Alcohol sanitizers are none for causing positive EGT alcohol. So yes,if you are monitoring you should avoid them.
SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN
1,847 Posts
I use soap and water at work mostly. I forget sometimes and use the regular sanitizer but its not worth the risk
Never hear of that, how crazy! I looked over some studies on it, and it looks like the results are mixed. A few of the studies proposed further research on weather the false positives were due to the alcohol vapor in the testing sites... either that the inhaled alcohol from the subjects were causing it (more than the exposure to the skin), or that the tests were becoming contaminated directly. Something to keep an eye on!
Persephone Paige, ADN
1 Article; 696 Posts
I've never done it. I've heard horror stories though. Any wacky readings are seen as 'altering' the integrity of a specimen and counted as a positive. I've seen dummies try and give dog urine. Supposedly tests nowadays can detect it, try it at your own peril.
Recovering_RN
362 Posts
Yep, all of us in monitoring contracts are told to avoid alcohol based hand sanitizer due to the propensity to cause a positive alcohol screen. It's technically not a "false" positive. There IS alcohol detected. However, you're right, as far as I could gather in my own research, in that it has to do with the fumes being breathed in rather than what's absorbed through the skin. At least that's what I found when I looked into it. Either way, not worth the risk, so soap and water for me, and I bought my own small bottles of alcohol-free hand sanitizer to use at work also.
catsmeow1972, BSN, RN
1,313 Posts
My opinion is with the studies that go with vapor in the immediate testing vicinity or direct contamination. An example might be a tech slathering on the sanitizer while you go pee and then putting on her gloves to handle your specimen.
Regardless of what scenarios anyone could dream up, these programs function so much on a culture of fear, that we as healthcare professionals are terrified of using hand sanitizer (an item that is nearly impossible to avoid)?? Am I the only one who thinks that there is something very wrong with that.
Also (and with apologies, this is my stupid showing) cannot the high and mighty P testing industry, differentiate between the alcohol in Purel and that in a martini? Or can it and these programs don't care to notice the difference until after you've been soaked for a bunch of money defending yourself?
I am a germaphobe when I pump gas. I have my head hanging out the window, while trying to avoid sniffing the fumes of my alcohol hand sanitizer. I avoid it otherwise, but I envision boogers, feces, member slime and all sorts of stuff on the gas pump.
This thread has got me paranoid! I went in for a pre-employment drug screen today, and stood there with my hands in "sterile field" position until she capped the sample. Then I lunged for the sanitizer But the sanitizer WAS over the counter that the sample was being prepared on. Never worried about this in my life until now! I don't even think it matters, for an employment screening rather than one testing for impairment....but still, I'm forever ruined!
Apparently, the test picks up on ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate. When hand sanitizer triggered the positive result, it was the ethyl glucuronide that triggered the positive reading, not the ethyl sulfate ...so many of the studies propose looking at the ethyl sulfate levels alone to determine if it's a legitimate positive.
KelRN215, BSN, RN
1 Article; 7,349 Posts
I can't see how someone in a monitoring program could get away with using synthetic urine. For pre-employment drug tests they search your belongings and make you leave everything outside, test the temperature of your urine to make sure it's fresh, put some sort of chemical in the toilet and don't let you flush. Surely they're as strict if not more so with people who are being monitored due to a history of substance abuse, no?
Lisacar130
379 Posts
I mean honestly as a recovering addict I can sure think of ways to fool the system to a point (I won't say how) but once the "urine" reaches the lab they would for sure be able to tell it's synthetic lol.
I fully recommend complying with abstinence, not just to not get caught but it's the right thing to do.