How Sensitive Are Drug Urine Tests To Alcohol

________________________________________________________________________

image: doctor checking urine and drug alcohol testsAs long as employers lose relatively large amounts of money and "person-hours" to alcohol abuse, they will continue to utilize random alcohol tests. 

If you drink alcohol and you work for a company, institution, or for an organization that has random urine alcohol testing, it makes sense that you would ask the following:  "how sensitive are drug urine tests to alcohol"? 

The Major Characteristics of Urine Alcohol Tests

Urine Alcohol Tests have the following characteristics:

  • They are the least expensive of the alcohol testing methods.
  • They can be used at home, for instance, by parents, though lab verification is required for accurate results.
  • They are considered an intrusive method of testing.
  • They can be affected by abstaining from drinking for a period of time before the test.
  • They detect alcohol ingestion mainly within the past week, or longer with regular drinking.
  • They are often temperature tested to assure sample integrity.
  • They indicate the presence of alcohol in a person's system, but it takes up to 2 hours for the alcohol to show up in urine.

Urine Alcohol Tests Pros

  • They have a high assurance of reliable results.
  • They are relatively inexpensive.
  • They provide the most flexibility in testing different drugs, including alcohol and nicotine.
  • They are the most likely of all drug-testing methods to withstand legal challenge.

Urine Alcohol Tests Cons

  • image: two teenagers drinking beerThe specimen can be adulterated, substituted, or diluted.
  • They have a limited window of detection (typically 1 to 5 days).
  • They are considered as invasive or embarrassing form of testing.
  • They present a biological hazard when the specimens are handled and shipped to the lab.
  • They indicate the presence of alcohol in a person's system, but it takes up to 2 hours for the alcohol to show up in urine.
  • A positive urine test does not necessarily mean the person was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the test. Rather, it detects and measures the use of alcohol within the previous day or so.
Alcohol affects women differently than men. Women become more impaired than men do after drinking the same amount of alcohol, even when differences in body weight are taken into account. This is because women's bodies have less water than men's bodies.

As far as passing alcohol urinalysis tests is concerned, as mentioned above, the specimen can be adulterated, substituted, or diluted.

Not only this, but a positive urine test does not necessarily mean that the person was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the test. Rather, it detects and measures the use of alcohol within the previous day or so. 

A strong family history of alcoholism is a warning that you are at increased risk of becoming an alcoholic. Increased awareness of such a risk may help modify your attitude toward alcohol consumption.

If, for instance, the person has a alcohol urinalysis test on a Monday morning, a positive test would show that this person had alcohol within the past few days.

If this person works a typical work week (i.e., Monday through Friday), this would indicate that the person ingested alcohol on Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday when he or she was not at work.  Such a scenario has little, if anything, to do with passing or failing the alcohol urinalysis test that was administered.

As people age, it takes fewer drinks to become intoxicated, and organs can be damaged by smaller amounts of alcohol than in younger people. Also, up to one-half of the 100 most prescribed drugs for older people react adversely with alcohol.

How Sensitive Are Drug Urine Tests To Alcohol:  Conclusion

As long as companies and organizations lose substantial amounts of money and "person-hours" to alcohol abuse, they will continue to employ random alcohol tests.

If you drink alcohol and you work for an employer that has initiated random urine alcohol testing as part of their drug and alcohol screening procedure, it is likely that you will be asking the following question:  "how sensitive are drug urine tests to alcohol"?

Please Add Our Website To Your Favorite Bookmarks!


About 20% of alcoholics are able to abstain from alcohol permanently without the help of formal treatment or self-help programs such as AA. Of those patients who attend AA, 44% who remain abstinent for one year probably will remain abstinent for another year. This figure increases to 91% for those who have remained abstinent and attended AA for five years or more.

_________________________________________________________