Which Hair Follicle Drug Test Is Right For Me?

Which Hair Follicle Drug Test Is Right For Me?

As a leader in the drug testing industry, we receive several inquiries from concerned parents, family members, attorneys and courts regarding hair drug testing and procedures.  There are several important factors when that will play a role when selecting the “Right” hair follicle drug test.

• What drug(s) are you needing to screen for (panels)
• What is the time frame the individual has been exposed/consumed the drugs
• Length of the hair to be tested
• The Type of Test Needed: are we testing for drug exposure or drug ingestion

This article will focus specifically on type of test needed. Information regarding the different drug testing panels and time frame/lookback period can be found here. 

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Drug Exposure Vs. Drug Ingestion

A standard workplace forensic hair follicle test measures the drugs and drug metabolites that are incorporated into the hair matrix from the bloodstream following the actual ingestion/drug use.  Standard hair drug testing provides a long-term history of drug or alcohol use, typically a 3-month (90 day) lookback period can be determined.  This hair test measures the level of specific metabolites found in the hair vs. laboratory defined cutoff picogram levels to determine whether a specimen is negative or positive.  

What is Drug Exposure?

Unfortunately, we receive calls almost daily regarding children being exposed to illicit drugs and this is an indirect marker of harm. Detecting these dangerous environments is paramount to keeping the child safe. Hair testing with ChildGuard® can assist, where a standard drug test falls short.

A child’s hair typically does not contain drug metabolites because the child has not physically ingested or consumed the illicit drug substances and simply giving a child a standard hair drug test as described above will almost certainly result in a false negative result. Which would be reported out as a negative result ultimately passing a hair follicle test. In this case, we recommend the ChildGuard® environmental exposure test to obtain an accurate result.

ChildGuard® is the only drug test designed to detect passive exposure to drugs, distinguishing between both native drugs and drug metabolites in hair specimens. Standard hair tests with other labs will only report a positive exposure result if drug metabolites are detected, even when the native drug is in the child’s hair specimen. 

ChildGuard® reports a positive result if either native drugs or drug metabolites are detected, giving much better insight about the child’s environment. ChildGuard® can provide evidence of substance use in a child’s environment for the past 3 months and can be performed on donors of any age.

A positive ChildGuard® test result suggests that the donor has experienced one or more of the following:

• Contact with drug smoke,

• Contact with sweat or sebum (skin oil) of a drug user,

• Contact with the actual drug,

• Accidental or intentional ingestion of the drug(s).

For more information on standard hair drug tests or specialty hair drug tests please call visit our website on you can contact our customer service department at (800)221-4291.