Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Motherisk: Ontario: Bulletin: Flawed Hospital for Sick Children hair-based drug-testing program - now shut down: CBC News reports that Nova Scotia has suspended use of hair tests in child protection cases - and that at least 3 provinces have stopped using the tests after serious shortcomings in the underlying science were revealed. (By the Toronto Star. HL)..."But Nova Scotia has continued to use hair-strand testing from other labs, including Toronto-based Dynacare, in child protection cases.........The testing uses hair strands to determine whether a person has used drugs or alcohol. But forensic toxicologist Albert Fraser has warned against using hair tests from any lab in child protection cases, describing it as a "developing science." "It's an emerging discipline," Fraser told CBC News in March. "But it's not a mature scientific discipline." He said there are unanswered questions about hair testing, including whether the results may have a "colour bias." questions were raised about the underlying science:
"Nova Scotia has suspended the use of all hair-strand drug and alcohol testing in child protection cases, following a CBC News investigation. At least three provinces have now ordered children's aid agencies to stop using the tests. Questions about the science of hair testing began after serious shortcomings were found at the Motherisk Lab at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, which now admits its hair test results could be inaccurate. As many as 380 people from Nova Scotia received a positive hair-strand drug or alcohol test at Motherisk between 1997 and 2015, results that are now unreliabe. The hospital can't say how those tests were used. It closed the Motherisk hair-testing lab in April 2015. But Nova Scotia has continued to use hair-strand testing from other labs, including Toronto-based Dynacare, in child protection cases.........The testing uses hair strands to determine whether a person has used drugs or alcohol. But forensic toxicologist Albert Fraser has warned against using hair tests from any lab in child protection cases, describing it as a "developing science." "It's an emerging discipline," Fraser told CBC News in March. "But it's not a mature scientific discipline." He said there are unanswered questions about hair testing, including whether the results may have a "colour bias." Someone with darker hair may absorb drugs in higher concentrations than someone with grey or blonde strands because of the different pigments found in hair. "It's problematic if one wants to relate the amount of drug that is present to the extent of drug abuse by the individual who had that hair that was being tested," Fraser said."
