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why does everyone get so hung up about havingto take a drug test? if you’re not on vitamin b pills or sleep aides or ibuprofen or hada poppy seed muffin you have nothing to hide! what’s up science junkies, julian here fordnews. if you’re applying for certain jobs or life insurance, you may have to take adrug test. in some states here in the us applicants for government assistance have to pass a drugtest as well. that’s a bit of a controversial

airline stewardess diet, topic but regardless on where you stand onit, you probably agree that someone who isn’t using illegal drugs shouldn’t be denieda job or insurance or aid just because the test they took resulted in a false positive.so these drug tests had better be pretty foolproof, right?

well they may not be up to snuff. it’s estimatedthey produce false positives in 5-10% of cases. judy stone of scientific american estimatedthat taking into account normal drug use rates, about 9 out of every 1000 people will testpositive for a drug they have not taken. part of the reason these tests sound a falsealarm is because the list of things that set them off is surprisingly long. the painkilleribuprofen can cause a test to show positive for marijuana, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines.cold remedies, hay fever remedies, diet pills, and nasal decongestants can show up as amphetamines.if you like to unwind with a poppy seed muffin and a gin and tonic, the poppies or quininein the tonic water can both trip the alarm for opiates. and of course eating foods withhemp seeds or taking vitamin b supplements

derived from hempseed oil can have trace amountsof thc, the active ingredient in marijuana. there are many varieties of drug tests andthey all have their strengths and weaknesses. ideally they strike a balance between accuracy,cost, and invasiveness. like a blood test is the most accurate, but a lot of peoplehave a problem with needles. hair tests aren’t as invasive but they can be expensive, dependingon how many substances they’re looking for, and some shampoos can throw off the scent. by far the most common method uses urine samples.the test uses immunoassays, which are biochemicals that bond to specific macromolecules and giveoff an indicator reaction. they’re pretty accurate but not perfect, so positive resultsoften undergo a second test. a gas chromatography/mass

spectrometry test analyzes another urine sample,usually taken from the original. the sample is pushed through a tubular column by heliumgas, and certain drugs pass through it at certain known speeds. once it gets to theend of the column, it’s fragmented with ionization and the fragments are sorted bymass. again, certain drugs have specific and known fragmentation patterns, so these twotests together can give scientists a pretty solid idea of exactly what chemicals are present.the test is more expensive, but the positive results are rarely wrong. not all drug tests are designed to see ifsomeone has been using: some are designed to test if an object has been in contact withillicit substances, or if something is a drug

itself. law enforcement uses these when investigatingdrug dealers, but they aren’t perfect either. in 2003 a college freshman flying home forthe holidays was stopped in a philadelphia airport because she had condoms filled withwhite powder in her bag. she claimed it was flour, a gag gift from girlfriends and thatshe squeezed them for stress relief, but sadly the tests didn’t vindicate her, coming uppositive for opium and cocaine. she spent 3 weeks in jail and could have gone to prisonfor 20 years had more accurate tests not cleared her name. i’m sure she realizes her mistakenow, but for all of you out there let me just reiterate: do not bring white powder in condomsthrough airports, it looks a little suspicious. so certain innocuous drugs can trip a drugtest, but that’s not the only risk. for

why mixing certain drugs can make you dead,you can turn to trace over here. do you think the margin of error is good enough,or is just one innocent person losing their job unacceptable? you can have your say downin the comments, or on twitter with the hashtag #askdnews, subscribe for more and i’ll seeyou next time on dnews.