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Urine Test for Alcohol



 Submitted by Medical Health Test Team on August 3, 2010
Urine Testing For Alcohol

Who uses this test: The urine test for alcohol is often used by traffic policemen to test whether a person, who is driving, is under the influence of alcohol or not. Many organizations, institutions, companies and agencies also have a program for random alcohol testing of their employees. This is done in order to ensure that the employees are not under the influence of alcohol during working hours, or in case any of their employees have a drinking problem.

Why use this test? Urine tests for alcohol are used, because not only are they relatively inexpensive, they are also very reliable. Urine tests are non-invasive and easy to perform. A urine test for alcohol is a more accurate and better indicator of ingestion of alcohol. Moreover, this method of testing can effectively withstand legal challenge since traces of alcohol can be found in the urine even a few days after consumption.

The level of alcohol in the blood is referred to as BAC or blood alcohol content. Alcohol metabolizes at the rate of .015 every hour. At this rate, if a person who has a BAC of .15 (which is double the legal permissible level while driving) is measured after 10 hours have elapsed, no alcohol will be found in the bloodstream. A simple rule observed by many people is that each drink takes about an hour to metabolize. A breath analyzer will be quite ineffective after a few hours. But the metabolites of ethanol alcohol remain for up to 5 days in the body and can be detected by a urine test for alcohol.

Types of urine tests: Some urine tests can detect the presence of alcohol even 48 hours after ingestion, while the EtG Urine Alcohol test can detect ethanol alcohol 80 hours (3 to 4 days) after imbibing alcohol.  However, the EtG Urine Alcohol test cannot find out how much alcohol has been ingested. This test is especially significant for companies when pinning down a person, who has a drinking problem and falsely states that she or he has stopped drinking for a certain period of time. The test helps to show whether they are telling the truth or not. It is also useful for traffic or crime police to bring charges in case of drunken driving.

Another reason why many employers and policemen prefer the urine test for alcohol, and more specifically the EtG Urine alcohol Test is because they can also effectively detect traces of nicotine and other drugs in the body.
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