Alcohol Tests and Schools – How Alcohol Testing Can Help Your High School

April 26th, 2010  

The prevalence of underage drinking in high school will come as no surprise to an experienced school administrator.  Spring in particular is a time to be vigilant for underage drinking in high schools, as it is a very exciting time for many students.  School dances, prom, and graduation parties all mean celebration and for some students that means maybe it’s okay to sneak alcohol into the gym.

Want to know what's in the glass? Find out with an AlcoScreen Alcohol Test

Want to know what's in the glass? Find out with an AlcoScreen Alcohol Test

Well, regardless of the event, it’s still not – and underage drinking is a crime.  Kids have begun to drink at an earlier age too.  According to a US Department of Health and Human Services Alcohol Alert, “In 2003, the average age of first use of alcohol was about 14, compared to about 17 1/2 in 1965.”  This means that underage drinking is not just the realm of high school seniors anymore, but also freshmen and middle school students.

The AlcoScreen saliva alcohol test can help you defend against alcohol abuse in your school.  It is a dual purpose alcohol test that can identify someone’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at ranges from 0.02%, 0.04%, 0.08% or 0.30%.  It can also be dipped into an alcoholic beverage to qualitatively determine if it has alcohol in it.

When testing saliva, the color of the test strip will determine your results.  You can conveniently compare the shade of green of the test strip against the packaging.  When you are testing possibly alcoholic beverages, results do not follow the same color patterns – an alcohol-positive result is found when the test strip turns dark brown or black.

For teachers, parents, and school administrators, the AlcoScreen is a great tool for deterring underage alcohol abuse.  Call Home Health Testing today at 910-815-0209 to learn more about the test and our bulk pricing options.

[“Silent Water Drops” photo by Nico van der Merwe]

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Why You Should Alcohol Test Your Employees

January 20th, 2010  

It has been estimated that about 70 percent of substance abusers hold jobs. This includes the 18 million alcohol abusers that have been estimated in the United States. Coming to work under the influence of alcohol can cause various concerns and issues. Among them are risks of an accident, reduced productivity, higher levels of health insurance costs and therefore lesser profits and unsafe conditions for everyone.

An alcohol test can help in finding out those who have been abusing alcohol or have come to work under the influence. It has been seen that alcohol abusers like other substance users are more prone to miss work and are also at a much higher risk of being involved in a job accident. This risk obviously is far greater in jobs that require extremely high levels of concentration.

Workplaces that require physical work like driving or managing large equipment, in other words any work that requires the reflexes to be at their best, can benefit from on-site alcohol testing. Since alcohol consumption causes blurred vision and coordination issues, these tasks become difficult for those under the influence. Transportation companies, construction companies, factories, heavy equipment handling companies and others should definitely include alcohol testing as a regular practice to ensure job safety.

Not only are alcohol tests necessary for the job safety of the employees, they also keep the employers away from complicated law suits that tend to follow incidents. It may not be practical to have a laboratory come in and conduct testing every now and then, but the breath analyzer alcohol test is an extremely convenient and accurate one that can get around this problem and literally be used every day.

Educational institutions are also using the alcohol test to ensure that there are no students that come to the campus under the influence of alcohol. This is a necessary measure that is being taken to ensure that proper discipline is maintained in the premises of the school. Hooliganism and unacceptable behavior can be avoided by using the 0.02 percent breath alcohol test.  As a matter of fact, the University of Minnesota, for example, requires season-ticket holding students guilty of previous alcohol offenses to take an alcohol test before they enter the stadium (see the full article at the blog Alcohol Testing).

Small businesses that cannot afford to hire a laboratory for these alcohol tests on a regular basis can ensure that their workplace is devoid of alcoholics. While those with desk jobs may not be at such a high risk of accidents on the job, the short term effects of alcohol can lead to low productivity and bad judgment. Alcohol induced fatigue, insomnia and lack of judgment and false confidence can cause some really wrong decisions to be made.

The home alcohol test is also something that educational institutions and corporate offices can use to ensure that the employees are clean and not under the influence of alcohol when they report. These alcohol tests are simple and can give results in a matter of seconds.

The 0.02 percent breath analyzer is a great piece of zero-tolerance equipment that can detect alcohol that has been consumed in the past hours. It is also a convenient thing to use to decide whether it is safe to drive or not rather than calculating the number and type of drinks consumed before getting behind the wheel.

Such alcohol tests not only provide a great way to pick out alcohol abuse at the workplace, they are a significant help in deterring teenagers from indulging in alcohol too.

– Anne Hamilton

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Alcohol Testing – Why Is It Done?

December 10th, 2009  

The increase in the amount of alcohol testing conducted in this country is something that should have probably happened much earlier. The government agencies are facing up to the fact that alcohol abuse can result in various harmful situations. Since it is possible to avoid such accidents from occurring, a stricter control is being levied on people who drink and abuse the freedom that has been granted to them. Alcohol testing can be done in various ways. The various affordable options include the famous breathalyzer-like breath alcohol test and also a saliva based test.

The effect of high levels of alcohol in the blood has been studied in various laboratory experiments. Other empirical studies have also been conducted to understand how alcohol can affect judgment and action. For example, it is known that a large proportion of highway fatalities occur due to a “drinking and driving” situation. The government legislators and organizations like MADD therefore feel that implementing rules with random alcohol tests can help in reducing irresponsible behavior on the road leading to a safer environment for many innocent people.

Some organizations are now beginning to conduct random alcohol tests at the workplace to ensure that the work environment is safe, sophisticated and sober too. It has been seen that such random alcohol tests that can be done using home alcohol test kits can reduce employee theft, on job injuries, turnover, sexual harassment and violence at the workplace. In addition to this there is also an increase that can be observed in the overall productivity levels.

Each of the alcohol tests attempt to arrive at the level of alcohol in the blood. The most common acceptable measure is BAC or Blood Alcohol Concentration. This is the amount of alcohol in the blood as a percentage of the total blood composition. A BAC of 0.09 indicates that there are 9 parts of alcohol per 10,000 parts of blood. Most state laws specify BAC levels in terms of grams per 100 milliliters of blood. The specific BAC levels that have been defined as permissible are covered under state jurisdiction and therefore differ, but it is a criminal offense in every state in the US to operate a vehicle with a BAC of greater than 0.08.

It is important to note here that an alcohol drug test can only confirm that alcohol abuse has taken place. It does not confirm that the individual being tested is an alcoholic or anything like that. Therefore while the test can be accurately described as an alcohol abuse test, it is surely not a test that can confirm alcoholism or addiction. To illustrate, drinking heavily during a birthday party and then driving home can cause a positive result on a breath alcohol test. However, the test result does not indicate a pattern of abuse.

Regular alcohol tests and random and surprise testing conducted in schools and colleges can keep children and teenagers under check making it difficult for them to illegally procure alcohol and consume it, especially during school hours. Not only are alcohol tests providing a safe environment for all concerned, they are also helping our youngsters lead a better life.

–Anne Hamilton

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