Can a positive result be caused by drugs in the air or environment attaching themselves to hair?
No. Psychemedics has developed two independent procedures which rule out tile possibility of a positive result through any external contamination. The first method involves extensive washing of the hair specimen prior to screening, followed by analysis of the content of the wash data. The second procedure focuses on the measurement of metabolites. Scientifically, when drugs are ingested, they are converted to specific chemical compounds called metabolites These unique metabolites are not present in the environment and their detection indicates that the individual has ingested drugs. Psychemedics’ ability to distinguish and measure metabolites with its highly sensitive GC/MS equipment eliminates the possibility of false positives from external exposure. In addition, any positive internal contamination (e.g. from passive inhalation or even poppy seed consumption) is distinguished from deliberate use by setting GC/MS cut-off levels above those which can be produced by passive internal exp
