HAIR TESTS RAISE DOUBTS

Analysis: The Use Of Hair Samples To Find Drug Traces Is Drawing Criticism
For Its Alleged Inaccuracy And Bias Against Dark-Haired People.

THE POPULARITY of hair testing to detect drug use is skyrocketing
nationwide. But with the increased popularity comes controversy over
the accuracy of the method. People in different parts of the country
claim they have received false results through hair testing.

Employers, including some of the nation's biggest corporations, favor
hair testing over urinalysis because it can reveal drug use from
months earlier, rather than from only the previous few days. General
Motors, Anheuser-Busch, BMW and Rubbermaid are among the more than
1,000 companies employing the test. Hair testing is also used by the
police departments of several major cities.

The controversy surrounding hair testing stems from years of
scientific research. Doubts about hair testing's accuracy have been
raised by several federal and private concerns -- from the National
Institute of Drug Abuse to the Society of Forensic Toxicologists. The
scientific consensus is that the process is not sufficiently reliable
for widespread use.

Evidence also points to a possible bias against people with dark
hair.

Althea Jones, an African-American mother of two, says she is a victim
of hair testing's inaccuracy. Her lifelong dream was to be a police
officer, but when she applied for admission to the Chicago Police
Academy, it requested a sample of her hair. The results came back
positive for drug use.

"I was shocked. I couldn't believe it," said Jones. "I don't even
smoke or drink. I was heartbroken by this."

She was denied admission to the academy. She is now a criminal justice
major at Chicago State University.

Jones and seven other Chicagoans, who say they received erroneous
hair-test results when they applied to the Police Academy, have filed
complaints of racial discrimination with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. The case is under investigation.

"The consensus of scientific opinion is that there are still too many
unanswered questions for [hair analysis] to be used in employment
situations," Edward Cone, NIDA's leading researcher on the test, said
in June. In a recent interview, Cone said hair testing "is not ready
for use yet, where people's lives are at stake."

The Society of Forensic Toxicologists stands by its 1990 report, which
said: "The use of hair analysis for employees and pre-employment drug
testing is premature and cannot be supported by the current
information on hair analysis for [drug abuse]."

D. Bruce Burlington, a doctor and director of the Food and Drug
Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, testified
on Capitol hill in July that "many scientific questions remain … about
the effectiveness of hair testing for detecting drug use." No
hair-testing laboratories have been approved by the FDA.

Burlington also raised another issue -- that hair testing might be
racially biased.

"Dark hair, blond hair and dyed hair react differently, thus creating
questions of equity among ethnic groups and genders," he said.

A U.S. Navy study released by NIDA in 1995 shows that the dark, coarse
hair of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians is more likely to
retain external contamination, such as drug residues absorbed from the
environment, and thus is more likely to test positive, even if the
person never abused drugs. The issue of external contamination is
particularly serious for police officers, who might be exposed to
drugs on the job.

Hair testing cost Sgt. Duane Adens his U.S. Army career. Adens, an
African-American father of five, had worked at the Pentagon for 14
years. In January 1997, he was less than six years from retirement and
had received the highest possible performance rating in his last job
evaluation, when he provided a hair sample for testing by army
investigators. It was sent away for analysis, though Adens never
signed off on the hair to identify it as his own, as regulations demand.

The results came back positive. Adens was stunned. He said he does not
use drugs and had not been exposed to environmental contaminants.
Indeed, seven urine tests he had taken between October 1996 and May
1998 -- most of them random tests required by the military -- came
back negative.

Adens was brought before an Army court martial and, because of the
hair-test results, received a bad-conduct discharge in July.

The possibility that Aden's results were a "false positive" is
underscored by two cases in New York. In the first, three police
department applicants -- all white -- were told that an analysis found
evidence of drug use in their hair samples.

Outraged, two of the men sent hair samples for testing by other labs,
which told them that the samples indicated no drug use.

In a second case, nine African-American police officers were dismissed
three years ago because of a positive hair test -- though all nine had
passed a series of random urine tests throughout their two-year
probation periods. Soon after hearing of the positive results, one
officer sent another sample of her hair to a different testing firm.

That test came back negative.

Taken together, these cases point up the incidence of erroneous, or
"false positive" results, from hair testing. Yet its use continues to
increase nationwide.

Worries about hair testing -- and the Adens case in particular -- have
reached Congress. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat, informed
Defense Secretary William Cohen in July that she was "exploring a
possible legislative remedy to prohibit human hair testing for drugs
in the military."

On May 14, 16 House members, including McKinney, sent a letter to the
Secretary of the Army requesting a review of Army policy on hair
testing and expressing concern about the Duane Adens case.

"One of the things that really, really bothers me is that this is a
federal conviction," said Adens. "I will never be able to get a good
job. I lose my voting rights. Something I worked hard at for 14 years is
going to
be taken away from me -- for no reason at all."

Leslie Kean and Dennis Bernstein are co-authors of the new book
"Henry Hyde's Moral Universe: Where More than Time and
Space are Warped" (Common Courage Press).