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FAQs about Adulteration
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Questions concerning Urine Adulteration
What is urine adulteration in drugs of abuse testing?
Urine adulteration refers to the situation where urine donors add extraneous substances into the urine specimens with the hope that these substances will alter the drugs of abuse test results rendering a positive reading into a negative one.
How widespread is urine adulteration?
Urine adulteration is most prevalent in the U.S. where experts estimate 4% of the urine samples currently submitted for testing are adulterated. With the easy access of information from the Internet, the number of adulterated specimens is increasing. Even in Europe and Australia, urine adulteration is also becoming a big problem
What is the nature of the adulterants?
There are basically two classes of adulterants. One class includes commonly available household substances like:
- Water
- Bleach
- Detergent
- Eye drops
- Baking soda
- Iodine tincture
- Vinegar
The other class includes commercially available adulterants with the following ingredients:
- Nitrite: "Klear" and "Whizzies"
- Acid: "THC-FREE" and "Amber 13"
- Detergent: "Mary Jane Superclean 13", "Purafyzit" and "Test Clean"
- Glutaraldehyde: "Instant Clean ADD-It-ive"
- Oxidizing reagents: "Stealth", "Clear Choice" and "Urine Luck"
- Mixed reagents: "Lucky Lab LL418"
Does urine adulteration really work?
Most adulterants do not work very well. However, some adulterants do affect the results of drug testing. For example:
- Bleach interferes with on-site drug tests leading to false negative results
- Nitrite interacts with the GC / MS confirmation procedure for THC causing a positive THC result by on-site test to fail confirmation
- Several commercial adulterants also interferes with on-site drug tests leading to false negative results.
How can I combat the urine adulteration problem?
The urine adulteration problem can be eliminated by the use of Intect® 7 Urine Adulteration Test Strips. The integrity of the urine specimen can be assessed with the Intect® 7 prior to on-site or off-site drug test.
