(3/11/99)

A new method of drug testing is becoming quite popular along the Wasatch Front. This method doesn't require the familiar sort of samples. As News Specialist Angela An explains, all the test requires is hair.

If you've ever taken a drug test, you know the routine. Take a cup, and give a urine sample.

But now there's a new method that can trace drugs as far back as 90 days... unlike the urine test that goes back no more than five days.

"It gives you a better opportunity to screen individuals you wouldn't have caught initially."

Jodi DeJong, of Salt Lake Industrial Clinic says, "You're certainly going to screen more applicants that may cause a potential problem for you in the workplace."

The RIAH hair test is simple.

Once the hair is cut, the sample is sent to Psychemedics-- the only company with a U.S. patent to test drugs through hair.

The RIAH hair test is based on simple, scientific fact. The same bloodstream circulating drugs also nourishes developing hair follicles.

Trace amounts of cocaine, marijuana, PCP, and meth remain in the hair, and cannot be washed or bleached out.

"It's in the cuticle, in the core of the hair."

A study looking at a group of kids in Cleveland showed 8 percent of them tested positive using the urinalysis method. But when those same kids used the hair method 56.8 percent of them tested positive for drug use.

While many products can be used to alter or dilute urine samples, the RIAH test requires patients to sign every step of the way, until their hair sample is bagged and shipped to the lab.

The RIAH hair test costs about twice as much as a urinalysis. But it can detect more drugs in one process.