Hair Alcohol Testing: TrichoTest first to offer accredited hair alcohol tests for dual markers

Hair alcohol Tests

Concateno TrichoTech, the UK’s leading provider of drug and alcohol testing services in the family law and child protection markets, has gained a world first as the only laboratory able to offer hair alcohol tests with accreditation for both markers of chronic alcohol abuse—ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE).

The United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) confirmed last month that the TrichoTest^® hair alcohol analysis meets the international standard, ISO/IEC 17025:2005.

“Courts use hair alcohol testing to corroborate suspected chronic alcohol abuse, especially in cases where children may be at risk,” said Graham Sievers, a director at Concateno Cardiff, the site that received the accreditation. “Because the results of these tests can have significant implications for families, it is vital that the courts are able to trust the rigour and quality of the test provided by UKAS benchmark.  We are pleased to be the only laboratory  to receive ISO 17025 from UKAS for both alcohol metabolites.”

According to the World Health Organisation, chronic alcohol abuse is defined as drinking at least 60g of pure ethanol a day over a period of several months.  The TrichoTest^® hair strand alcohol analysis, can help determine whether an individual has abused alcohol for several months and should be used in conjunction with blood tests and other clinical assessments.

It is estimated that, in the UK today, more than 2.6 million children live with hazardous drinkers, 705,000 live with dependent drinkers, and 8 million people are affected by a family member’s alcohol abuse.

Established in 1993, the Concateno TrichoTech laboratory currently carries out approximately 100,000 tests on more than 10,000 hair samples each year. Additionally, Concateno TrichoTech provides Expert Witness Reports along with consultation, education and training for frontline child protection professionals. It gained UKAS accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for detecting EtG in hair in January 2011 and for FAEE in hair in December 2011.

Ends

For more information regarding Concateno, please contact:
Jo-Ann Lee
Tel: +44 (0)20 7680 5520
Mobile: +44 (0)79 6407 1830
email: concateno@chameleonpr.com

Concateno – global drug testing services

Informed testing for informed decisions, when it matters most

Concateno (www.concateno.com ) brings together Europe’s strongest and most experienced drug and alcohol testing organisations and over 60 years of collected expertise. It offers an unparalleled breadth of advisory services and testing capabilities – spanning laboratory, point of care tests and all sample types for any biological specimen, including urine, oral fluids, hair and sweat.

Concateno’s 400+ employees perform and deliver more than 10 million tests annually, supported by a global network of 500 sample collection officers, trained in-house on strict chain-of-custody procedures. Together, they conduct testing for approximately 8,500 clients in 130 countries around the world across all industries, healthcare and government bodies.

Concateno’s dedicated divisions specialise in: Child Protection, Clinical Diagnostics, Criminal Justice, Employee Services, Healthcare and Maritime.

Quality is assured by the highest levels of accreditation, supported by expert and responsive customer service. Concateno’s three UK laboratories are audited and accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 for the testing for substance misuse in hair, oral fluids and urine, respectively. Laboratory products and point of care test products are manufactured within ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003 certified facilities. The company is also subject to a range of external quality assurance programmes, including UKNEQAS, IIP and CAP (US scheme).

In August 2009, Concateno became a subsidiary of Alere Inc., formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc.

About Alere
By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Alere Inc. (www.alere.com ), formerly known as Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Alere’s global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. Alere is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.