Saliva holds promise for drug testing
2/18/2005 Kansas City, Paul Recer Kansas City Star (www.kansascity.com) Detecting illegal drug use may one day become as simple as testing spit on a sponge. Researchers on Thursday said techniques now being developed for analyzing saliva may in the future replace many of the blood and urine tests that now are used to detect drug abuse and disease. Some law enforcement agencies in Europe already test drugged drivers using saliva and the technique is gaining acceptance in the U.S., said Edward Cone, a Maryland researcher developing equipment for using oral fluids to screen for drug abuse. "There are a lot of advantages to using oral fluid or spit," he said Thursday at a news conference of the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "It is easily accessible, noninvasive and not embarrassing. You don't have to greet an employee with a urine cup." Most people produce more than a quart of saliva a day. Researchers have found the oral fluids accurately mirror the proteins that are found in blood and urine. This means that simple spit could provide a diagnostic window on the body in tests not requiring a needle or the embarrassing collection of urine. Cone said experiments have already shown that spit can be even more reliable than urine tests for drug use screening. "Drug users have learned how to beat the urine test in a variety of ways," said Cone, an organic chemist who heads up firm near Annapolis, Md. "We haven't found [...]