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Comparison Of Urine And Saliva Drug Tests

UsaDrugTest — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:50:11 +0000

The major difference between different types of drug tests is the collection of specimen. But the advantages and disadvantages of these distinct drug tests vary in terms of many issues like invasiveness in specimen collection, risk of tampering the specimen, cost of drug test, time taken to produce results, accuracy of the results, etc. Of all the drug tests, Urine and Saliva drug tests are very common because of their efficiency to provide accurate results.

Features of urine and saliva drug testing

Both the urine drug testing and the saliva drug testing have their own advantages as well as some disadvantages.

Collection of specimen:

The major advantage of saliva drug testing over urine drug testing is its least invasiveness of privacy while collecting specimen. This has been a controversy since a long time in all the places of drug testing. The process of collecting saliva for a drug test is obviously less invasive compared to the case of urine drug test.

Chances of adulteration:

The chances of adulteration in saliva drug test are very less, compared to urine drug test. In case of saliva drug test, it is feasible to collect the specimen under legible supervision. Thus, minimizing the chances of tampering the specimen. This is not possible in case of urine drug testing. However, saliva drug test is not completely free from adulteration.

Detection period of drug abuse:

The detection period of drug abuse through saliva drug test is shorter, compared to urine drug test. The detection period in case of saliva drug test is around 20 hours to 1 day approximately, whereas it is around 3 days in case of urine drug test.

Accuracy of results:

The accuracy rate of both, urine and saliva drug tests are deemed by the United States court system. However, the accuracy rate of urine drug test results is much higher than that of saliva drug test results, the risk of false negatives is high in both the drug tests.

Cost of drug test

Cost-effectiveness is the major advantage of urine drug tests compared to any type of drug tests. The cost of saliva drug test is a little higher, compared to urine drug test. However, the cost of saliva drug testing complies with the quality of the drug test.

As both saliva drug test and urine drug test, have their own advantages and disadvantages it is not feasible to use any one of them in all the situations. Based on the comparison of features mentioned above, it will be easier to analyze and choose a drug test according to the situation.

Know About Cotinine Drug Testing

UsaDrugTest — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:17:16 +0000

Cotinine is a metabolic of nicotine, used to measure the grade of tobacco smoking. According to National Survey On Drug Use 2007, overall 68 million people abuse tobacco, and more than 3.5 million teens abuse tobacco between 12-17 years. Detection of smoke levels present in the body is possible with help of Cotinine test. Cotinine levels describe the level of smoke in the body.

Cotinine abuse

Cotinine abuse is similar to any illicit drug abuse. Cotinine is major metabolite of nicotine. Cotinine is present in nicotine, and smoked in cigarettes, chewed, and sniffed. When nicotine is metabolized, it gradually builds the level of cotinine in the body of both habitual smokers, and regular smokers. This drug is popular among teens because it is available in colorful packages with flavor choices to abuse. Cotinine itself is not harmful but nicotine is harmful, and has many adverse effects on the health of the abuser.

Test for cotinine

Cotinine effects are present in body for 20 hours from the time of consumption. Cotinine levels can be detected using various methods like gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Cotinine can be detectable from days to one week after tobacco abuse. Cigarette preference, menthol, puff size, and many other factors influence the detection period of cotinine using different testing types. Different persons have different levels of cotinine in the body with regular smoking. One way to reduce the cotinine levels in the body is to stop smoking.

Immunoassay technology used for detecting illicit drugs, can detect cotinine substance in body. Detection period of cotinine from specimen is four days after consumption. Cotinine retains in the blood for long period after consumption through smoking. There are many methods used for detecting cotinine. One of the preferred method is urine drug testing. Cotinine testing through saliva drug testing is difficult both in terms of collecting the specimen as well as drug detection. Using testing kits, testing process of cotinine is simple, and easy to perform at home. Often, lab confirmation tests are used to test cotinine levels for accurate results.

The above information gives you an overview about cotinine abuse, and testing methods. Cotinine drug testing makes it easier to detect presence of nicotine, and its metabolism presence in body.

Drug Testing for Heroin

UsaDrugTest — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:53:48 +0000

Heroin is popular among high school and college grads. According to the Monitoring The Future study, 1.3% of the 8th grade students abused heroin in their past lifetime, and .8% in the past year, and .4% in the past month. The percentages were much higher in the 10th and 12th grads. These alarming numbers tells the need for active heroin drug testing at schools, colleges, and other places to deter the drug abuse.

Heroin drug test is usually conducted to identify the presence of its drug metabolites in a body. The presence of the drug can be monitored by different types of tests suitable to the convenience of test administration.

Urine Drug Testing:

Urine drug testing is the most common method used for drug detection. It is less expensive when compared to other tests. The cut off level for this is 300ng/mL. The detection period of the drug is 2-4 days. This test strip gives positive result if the drug in the urine specimen exceeds the cut off level and negative if it is below the cut off level.

Hair Drug Testing:

Hair drug testing is not the common method used for drug testing. It is expensive when compared to the Urine Drug Testing. This test can be used to detect substance use for a long period of time, but it cannot detect drug abuse within past one week. The cut off level for this test is 0.1ng/mL. It takes several months to detect the drug. This test gives positive result if the drug in the hair specimen exceeds cut off level and negative if it is below the cut off level.

Saliva Drug Testing:

Saliva drug testing test is also not the common method. This test can detect more recent use of the drug and it is very easy to administer but it is still more expensive than Urine Drug Testing. The cut off level for this test is 40ng/mL. It takes some weeks to detect the drug. This test gives positive result when the drug in the saliva specimen exceeds cut off level and negative if it is below the cut off level.

With increase in use of Heroin, concerns on health of abusers and effects on the society are growing. Parents should observe their children’s habits in order to reduce the usage of drugs. For tracing these two drugs one should select appropriate method of drug testing which gives accurate test results.