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Drug Testing in Hair

NCJ Number
167934
Editor(s)
P Kintz
Date Published
1996
Length
298 pages
Annotation
This book contains a series of papers on both the theoretical and practical aspects of human hair analysis for forensic and medical purposes.
Abstract
Hair analysis is routinely used as a tool for detection of drug use in forensic science, traffic medicine, occupational medicine and clinical toxicology. Generally, the courts recognize the results of chemical-toxicological analyses only when they are confirmed by a second independent method. For this reason, gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry is now the method of choice for hair analysis. This volume contains 12 chapters by international authors on: (1) technical and legal aspects of drugs of abuse testing in hair; (2) environmental exposure; (3) the potential for bias; (4) analytical tools; (5) importance of supercritical fluid extraction; (6) determination of cocaine and opioids in hair; (7) cannabis and amphetamine determination; (8) unusual drugs in hair; (9) forensic applications of hair analysis; (10) methodology, reliability issues and field studies of hair analyses for organic analytes; (11) clinical applications of hair analysis; and (12) drug analyses in nonhead hair. References, figures, tables, abbreviations, index