Hair Test at Evaluation

Mik Tea · Jul 13, 2023

KoreyB said:

Yea I don't trust these facilities that's why I'm prepared for worst case scenario. I did notice that the board here recently changed(w/n last two years) to 'only allows evaluators that are affiliated with the board approved facilities' if u go to an external evaluator.

Any other evaluator not affiliated has to be approved

Would you mind telling me if your evaluator accessed your medical records?

Sam_0896 · Aug 3, 2023

Hair tests don't evaluate how much or how often you drink. Reading through this board it seems that there is no reasonable amount but I would imagine that if your blood and urine tests are clean, then it would be understandable that you drank alcohol as most adults do

Universe93B · Aug 3, 2023

There is some incorrect information on this thread, not related to whether they do a hair evaluation at an evaluation center.

Urine ETG/ETS tests at the usual level for medical professions at 100ng/ml, do not detect alcohol for 6 days. The 120 hour rule is for people with alcohol withdrawal who needed an inpatient center to help them thru withdrawals. Even heavy drinking is no longer detectable after 72 hours at the 100ng level.

But if you drank heavy on a Friday and have to do a Peth on Monday, then yeah you will test positive.

Jean80 · Aug 13, 2023

solarex said:

First of all, you did not disclose WHY you have a chemical dependency evaluation.

2nd. Alcohol usage can be detected in the hair for up to 90 days. The test is more qualitative than quantitative and here is what I mean. They can detect, going back to 90 days, if you have been drinking or had a one time-one night binge on alcohol versus the accidental alcohol mouthwash or hand sanitizer. They can't tell if you have been drinking every day or every week, but they can get an idea of the overall volume and they can tell the difference in that versus accidental alcohol contact like alcohol pads for finger sticks and injections to patients or perfume or mouthwash.

Important....think of a giant string of yarn that is Blue. If you had one night where you got hammered 2 months ago and that was it. You did not drink at any other time in the last 3 months, they can at the tiniest level with the highest powered microscopes, identify that giant string of yarn that is blue and with a 100 percent certainty, they will find that giant string of yarn with a completely and perfectly encircled yellow color that is sized literally within a couple days before or after and they can time it based on the length. It's actually not hard for them to do.

If you drank for example once every 2 weeks. They can see and estimate those times based on the discolorations of the reagent that is ALARMINGLY accurate and simple to see with a microscope, and they have a mathematical formula based on your hair length sample and the size of the discoloration that can estimate the frequency of your use and the approximate time, and yes, this is so scientific that it has held up in court for over 2 decades.

As for the Pleth. If you are having a chemical dependency eval, in addition to the hairtest, they will do a urine test for alcohol. The type they do will be the most sophisticated/most accurate possible. As of 2023, the most sophisticated urine alcohol tests can detect alcohol metabolites for up to 6 days with very, very good reliability. This is why so many people lose their licenses and get kicked out of monitoring programs. It happens all across the USA after a 4 day weekend. Lets say there is Christmas coming up. For example, it's Friday the 21sr of December, so the 24th is a Holiday which is a Monday and the 25th is a Holiday which is Tuesday. The nurse who is in monitoring calls in very early on Friday morning at the earliest time possible and they are NOT selected to randomly test that day. The nurse knows they are off over the next 4 days and doesn't have to call in again to see if they are selected to test until Wednesday. What does the nurse do? The nurse calls in sick on Friday and instead, plans on getting themselve a stiff drink or cold brew. Surely, 5 days is enough to clear the alcohol if they are selected to test the following Wednesday when it's time to call in again. Well, 5 days is NOT long enough to clear it.

You would be amazed how many nurses are removed from monitoring programs and licenses suspended or revoked around late December every year because of the 4 day Holiday. It's incredible how many nurses call in sick to work on the last working day before the Holiday to give themselves what is basically a 5 day weekend instead of a 4 day weekend so they can get their alcohol in them soon, which gives them more time to clear it. When it happens, and the nurse gets selected and tests positive on Wednesday when having to call in again, what does the monitoring program and board do? They immediately call your employer and ask a simple question. Was she or he sick on Friday, the day before the 4 day weekend, or did she take time off, doctors appt, etc? Boards know this. They have seen every trick in the book, and that trick is repeated with every 4 day weekend all across the country by nurses who think they are the only nurse in the United States to come up with their brilliant idea.

Not sure if you're talking about hair test when talking about long blue string or not, but they don't just see spots on the hair strand. They take a specific length sample that is always the same (1.5 inches) and they take a specific weight amount of that 1.5 inches. With that sample, they wash several times in a special chemical wash. Then that washed sample is pulverized into powder for testing. Whatever is extracted from it is what forms a quantitative value. Whether it is above or below the cut off value determines if its a negative or positive test result. If it's a positive, they test it further. In the past, it was thought that it could technically give you a timeline of usage when testing different lengths, but since there are so many other factors involved and people metabolize differently, they have determined that it is not a good indicator of timing. Most all labs have stuck with the standard of using 1.5 inches to look at the last 3 months. Some labs may use longer lengths if requested. Anywho, I just had to pit my two cents in :)

Universe93B · Aug 14, 2023

Jean80's post is correct. To add, they have cutoffs of etg when doing the hair etg test. They test the entire strand for etg and if it's below the cutoff, it will result in a negative. That's why 1 drinking episode probably won't show up on a hair test, because the amount of etg will be less than the cutoff. They will NOT be able to see "some small thin line" on the hair strand and be able to say "aha! Got you, you drank heavily that 1 night last month!”