The Hairy Truth about Alcohol Consumption
Many people think that hair conveys a lot about a person's personality; others see it as just this nuisance growing out of the top of one's head requiring maintenance. But now, hair holds the secret to what can be anything from a social habit to a serious addiction.
That's right: there is now a test that can provide an extended history of alcohol consumption, says WSJ's Market Watch. The AbuseCheck(TM) by Consumer Genetics uses a hair sample to detect the level of fatty ethyl esters in one's hair. The more you have, the longer you have been drinking.
A few hiccups: the longer the hair, the better the test as the hair has time to build up these esters while it grows. Sinead O'Connor would not be a good candidate for AbuseCheck. Like looking at the rings of a tree trunk, scientists can use long strands of hair to measure the amount of these esters present as the hair grew--thus determining how long and how much one has been consuming alcohol.
The problem with this kind of testing, besides the "Barber Defense", as a means of determining whether employees or recovering alcoholics are alcohol free is that hair grows somewhat slowly. Even a long hair sample could appear ester-free, but that person could be downing scotch hand over fist in the last week or the morning before the test for that matter. If all the testing requires is a period of abstaining from alcohol until one's hair is "clean" (Consumer Genetics' website says it can detect alcohol consumption for 6 months to 1 year), then it would seem to me that this method is no better at preventing fraud in drug testing than any other.
Only if a company instituted yearly AbuseCheck testing would this work--and at $495 per test, this is an expensive endeavor for any company.
In any case, it's a creative idea. Maybe it will work. Or maybe the companies who are known to do this kind of testing will suddenly have a 100% increase in the number of bald applicants coming into their HR departments.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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