When a child is exposed to illegal substance abuse they often face other coexisting obstacles to a normal life – neglect, abuse, violence, and other vulnerabilities. Substance abuse is a disease, one that often prevents adults from doing what is in a child’s best interest. Detecting these dangerous environments is paramount to keeping the child safe. Testing with ChildGuard® can assist, where other exposure drug tests fall short.
ChildGuard® is the only drug test designed to detect passive exposure to drugs, distinguishing between both native drugs and drug metabolites in hair specimens. Drug metabolites are produced in the body only if drugs have been ingested. Children in drug exposed environments are most often not drug users themselves, so drug metabolites are typically absent when a child is being tested for drug exposure. Typical hair tests with other labs will only report a positive exposure result if drug metabolites are detected, even when the native drug is in the child’s hair specimen. ChildGuard® reports a positive result if either native drugs or drug metabolites are detected, giving much better insight about the child’s environment. ChildGuard® can provide evidence of substance use in a child’s environment for the past 3 months, and can be performed on donors of any age.
A positive ChildGuard® test result suggests that the donor has experienced one or more of the following:
- Contact with drug smoke,
- Contact with sweat or sebum (skin oil) of a drug user,
- Contact with the actual drug,
- Accidental or intentional ingestion of the drug(s).
Our forensic test for passive exposure is the first and only test of its kind.
For panels, pricing and to set up an appointment, please call 715-718-2629 during normal business hours.
