Alcohol Abuse Advice

ETG or ETG/ETS Laboratory Alcohol Testing

With alcohol consumption being an understood and incorporated part of many cultures,It has become a integral part of these societies to realize that a method of detection needs to exist for such a possibly problematic substance. Developed roughly thirty years and to date, among the most comprehensive and simplest methods of detecting alcohol are through testing a urine sample. Detecting alcohol in the urine commonly employs a test for Ethyl Glucoronide (EtG), a metabolite of ethanol alcohol.

 Presence of EtG in the urine is used to detect recent alcohol consumption,  even after the ethanol alcohol  itself is no longer detectable. Therefore the presence of EtG is often a definitive marker that alcohol was ingested. While unable to give an exact number  as to how much alcohol was ingested, the testing for EtG has an exclusive advantage in that it can detect the presence of alcohol or roughly 80 hours after it has been ingested.  Another clear marker and difference in this method of testing is that EtG will only stay in the body if a sufficient amount of Ethanol Alcohol has been consumed. These tests can vary but the most common can check variations of 100 ng/ml, 250 ng/ml, and 500 ng/ml. Yet even with these different levels of testing, the only thing that can really distinguish between them is the ability to better limit false positive episodes; it is in no way better able to tell how much alcohol was actually consumed a day or three ago.

Alcohol tests that simply check for the presence of Ethanol Alcohol will very rarely come back as inconclusive  because of mouthwash or cough-syrup consumption, products which are legally allowed  to contain Ethanol Alcohol. It should be noted that new case studies have surfaced which show that the ETG test isn’t quite as reliable as initially perceived in distinguishing the difference between EtG in liquor and common household products, it is for this reason many laboratories have begun using more sophisticated methods of pin-pointing whether the EtG detected is actually liquor that was consumed.

 Recent outcry was legally issued against products which test for EtG due to many subjects of the test claiming they abstained from alcohol but still surfaced as positive for alcohol consumption. Courts in the United States have recently issued statements stating that because the EtG is so sensitive as to be triggered by something like hand sanitizer on one hands dabbing the testing area, the EtG test will no longer be an admissible finding on its own in court. In matters of a strictly legal context, further examination and testing beyond a single EtG reading will be needed for someone to have any legal leverage with it whatsoever.

 In response to these findings, a new test known as the EtG/EtS test was developed for laboratories to find out conclusively if alcohol had in fact been absorbed into the system through liquor consumption. Short for Ethyl Sulfate, the EtS factor of the test is merely the guarantee in finding out if alcohol was consumed, where the EtG can be set to find levels of alcohol that has been absorbed into the system, the EtS certifies that the alcohol present is from liquor and not one of the few household products known to falsely trigger an EtG from time to time.

 Something to keep in mind is that even with a high dose reading on a EtG/EtS test it would be foolish to necessarily conclude that heavy drinking took place. The EtG/EtS is best measured and used for a zero-tolerance environment, where it can safely detect most alcohol abuse that something like a breathalyzer could easily have missed.