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Alcohol Saliva Testing (ALCO-Screen)

By: Nate Rodnay
Submitted: 2008-01-12 22:54:44
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Alcohol Saliva testing is a one step saliva screening method used to detect the presence of alcohol in saliva that works in a clean, non-invasive manner. This test provides a semi-quantitative approximation of blood alcohol concentration. The results of these tests should be verified with the adequate procedure of alcohol analysis. It is an effective testing method, which is approved by DOT (Dept of Transportation) that is required for testing all the transportation and safety sensitive employees.

The following information gives you an idea about the alcohol saliva tests and its advantages and precautions for its usage.
Alcohol Saliva Test Process
The procedure for the alcohol saliva test involves certain steps accordingly. They are:
•    Abstain consuming anything for about 15 minutes before you start the test.
•    Open the foil package and the testing strip. Observe the reactive pad, which is at the tip of the strip. It would be in a light cream color.
•    Drench the reactive pad with saliva from the donor’s mouth or sputum cup. This will start the device immediately.
•    After 2 minutes you can find the color of the reactive pad changing. If the color is changed to green or blue it indicates the positive result that there is presence of alcohol. The result after more than 2 minutes may be incorrect and it should not be considered.
•    Estimate the concentration of the blood alcohol by comparing the color of the reactive pad with the color chart test package.   

Advantages of Alcohol Saliva Testing
The ALCO-Saliva testing has various advantages. Few of them were explained below:
•    Convenient: It can be used at any time and at any place. Each test is separately wrapped and is completely disposable.
•    Economical: It entirely reduces the time and cost of testing, when it is compared with other single or multiple alcohol testing method.
•    Sensitive: The amount of ratio among the saliva alcohol and blood alcohol is 1:1 and for the breath it is, 000048:1. Therefore, making saliva testing is more sensitive method than breath testing.
•    Versatile: Besides testing the presence of alcohol in saliva, it can also detect alcohol in other fluids.

Precautions for Alcohol Saliva Testing
The ALCO-Saliva is a sensitive method of alcohol testing. Therefore, in the procedure you have to take certain precautions. Some of them are illustrated as follows:
•    Alcohol Saliva Testing is the testing method that is interpreted visually, as the color matching is used.  Therefore, interpretation of accurate results is not necessary in all the cases. Moreover, interpretation may be biased for any reason. It is recommended to take the others opinion for the results or color matching be obtained.
•    The tested materials should be considered as the potential infectious and it should be placed in the original package and disposed appropriately.
•    The testing device that is expired should not be used. Verify the date manufacturing and expiry date on the device pack before you use it.

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Article source: Expert Articles