Teenage drinkers face alcohol test

The New Scientist reports on developments in school drug testing in the USA:

Big Brother has arrived at a high school in New Jersey. Determined to stop their students consuming alcohol at weekends, staff at Pequannock Township High School in Morris county are to start using a controversial test that can detect if students have been drinking up to a week earlier.

The report goes on to say that the tests are so sensitive that there is a danger that pupils will get a positive where they’ve used soaps, mouthwashes or contaminated vinegars which contain alcohol or even by drinking a sip of communion wine. Apparently:

Below 1000 nanograms of EtG per millilitre of urine is probably “innocent”, and above 5000 booze is almost certainly to blame. In between there is a “question zone”…

Filed under: alcohol, random drug testing