HairConfirm™ Confidential Forensic Drug of Abuse Hair Testing

The HairConfirm™ personal forensic hair analysis drug of abuse testing service is the only at home drug testing kit that provides a *history (up to several months) of current or previous drug use for the five most abused illicit drugs and drug categories: Methamphetamines including Ecstasy , Marijuana, Opiates, Cocaine and Phencyclidines (PCP) without the need for urine specimen collection.

The only sample required is a small lock of the test subject's hair (approximately the size of a shoelace tip) taken at the scalp line.

Confidential and non-invasive, The HairConfirm™ drug test provides a qualitative determination of past drug use over a period of approximately three (3) months using forensic laboratory analysis.

PRINCIPLE
The presence of drugs in hair is based on a simple principle. Drugs which are ingested into the body circulate in a person's bloodstream which nourishes developing hair follicles. As a result, trace amounts of the target drug or drug metabolite are deposited in the hair follicle and become entrapped in the core of the hair shaft as it grows out from the hair follicle. Normal growth rates for human hair are approximately one-half inch per month. By testing for the presence of drugs in the hair shaft core on a given length of hair, a historical record can be achieved on past drug usage based on the length of the hair sample submitted measured from the scalp line. For example; if a 1.5" length hair sample measured from the scalp line is submitted, and knowing that on average head hair grows at the rate of .5" inch per month, then it can be assumed that a positive test result would imply that a drug was consumed sometime in the past 3 month period. Since target drug or drug metabolite residues are chemically and structurally stable for an extended period of time within the hair shaft core, they cannot be externally washed, bleached, chemically treated or flushed out of the hair structure. Consequently there is little possibility of sample contamination or manipulation. For this reason many courts and legal entities have chosen a forensic hair drug test as the preferred method of drug testing. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) forensic laboratory analysis of the hair shaft from an individual can achieve highly accurate drug test results and provide a historical use record. Generally it takes approximately 5 days for drugs to show up in a person's hair and will continue to be detectable in new hair growth for several months

Source: Craig Medical

Careers in Forensic Entomology

Forensic Entomologists are typically employed by academic institutions and not law enforcement agencies. They can provide valuable information to law enforcement, Medical Examiners, and Coroners in establishing a portion of the postmortem interval. Entomologists are experts at determining the age of insects on human remains. Such information can be extremely valuable when law enforcement investigators are attempting to establish a time frame to support or refute suspect and/or witness statements.

Forensic entomology is a young subfield, which is the application of this science to medicolegal death investigations. Forensic Entomologists estimate the post-mortem interval (PMI)—the amount of time that passes after the death of the victim. These scientists use insects to make such determinations, as well as to help reveal the probable cause, location, and time of death. Forensic Entomologists are also able to glean other valuable information by studying the insects that live on dead bodies. For example, insect evidence can be used to:


• deduce if a body was disturbed or moved after death
• identify a body by analyzing the DNA of flesh consumed by insects
• determine whether a dead individual used drugs by analyzing accumulated toxins in the insects that fed on the body
• establish whether a suspect was present at the scene of a crime
• ascertain the presence or position of wounds in badly decomposed bodies

Forensic Entomologists have expertise about the life cycle of insects that feed on decomposing flesh. They know that certain insects eat specific parts of bodies at particular intervals. Insects also develop through their life phases from egg to larvae to pupae to adults within a constant timeframe according to each insect species.

CHECK VIDEO ON COOL JOBS: FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY
http://blip.tv/file/1157050