Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

Because ethyl glucuronide (EtG) tests for recent alcohol use have been shown to have so many false positives, people looking to control the habits of their employees are constantly searching for new alternatives to use as a monitoring tool. One recent possibility that has been put forward as another possibility for monitoring alcohol consumption is the fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), a product of ethanol metabolism that is incorporated into hair. The goal is that the compound can be used to track alcohol use over a long period of time.

Researchers found that "FAEE hair concentrations can be used as markers for excessive alcohol consumption with relatively high accuracy." However, there is reason to doubt that FAEE will be reliable for anything but the most extreme case. In the study, researchers did find that the average concentration of FAEE in hair was 6.8 ng/mg of hair in fatalities with verified excessive alcohol consumption, compared to 4.0 ng/mg in recovering alcoholics, 0.41 ng/mg in social drinkers, and 0.16 ng/mg for teetotalers. However, there are two main drawbacks to the use of FAEE for testing alcohol consumption. First, there was no agreement between self-reported levels of alcohol consumption and the presence of FAEE along the length of the hair. Second, the variation in concentrations was extreme. Some teetotalers had FAEE levels nearly equivalent to the average for social drinkers.

If you have been fired or suffered other punitive actions at work because of an unreliable test for alcohol, contact an experienced ethyl glucuronide (EtG) lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.