Hi DrBill100,

I had to take an ETG/ETS urnie test today. I drank pretty heavily Friday night, but have not drank since. It's been about 110 since I last drank? What are my odds of passing?

The odds are heavily in your favor. There have only been a handful of cases that failed after 102 hours. Elimination time even after heavy drinking tops out about 78 hours.

Please let us know how it turns out so others better understand.

Of course the biggest problem with this test is environmental exposure to ethanol and sample instability after the sample is provided. Even with the sample problem the odds are with you because it is more likely to degrade than multiply.

I know the cut off limit is 100 for EtG and 25 for ets... does that make any difference? The results come from Redwood toxicology and it says it can detect for up to 80 hours, even alcoholics in abstinence for that long of period don't have any detectable etg/ets. Does this sound right?

I know the cut off limit is 100 for EtG and 25 for ets... does that make any difference? The results come from Redwood toxicology and it says it can detect for up to 80 hours, even alcoholics in abstinence for that long of period don't have any detectable etg/ets. Does this sound right?

The up to 80 hours is meaningless propaganda. The most recent cutoff recommended is 500 ng (EtG) and 100 (EtS). See Ethylglucuronide This is supported by all recent research. Redwood manufactures some components of the test and I would be interested if they are still using the lower cutoff.

Most of the research was based on the 100 cutoff so you should still be safe. 500 gives you about a 25% added advantage.

As to their statements in relation to elimination time they are unsupported. Everyone creates EtG at a different rate and there is no discernible elimination rate for that reason. Generally, the clearance times are far less than the 80 hours following heavy drinking. But there is no way to be sure.

So from your initial response, where you said that elimination tops out about 78 hours with heavy exposure, was that on the 100 cut off? And with the cutoff, I just read off what it said on the website, I just assume where I get tested would use the lower cut off to get a more "accurate" result.

The following study checked elimination in heavy drinkers that began with a BAC .10-.33. Used cutoff of 500. See Helander, 2008. Note the wide variation in clearance time.

There seems to be only one other researcher that has researched heavy alcohol consumption (detoxing) and used a 100 cutoff. See Borucki (2005) Once again note the variance.

I just read the answer stating that most heavy drinking episodes the clearence times are less than 80 hours. I'm still confused why they say up to 80 hours when most people are free of EtG before 80 hours even if they drank heavily, that is if the person is in good health.

Your question is well founded and authoritatively posed in the study performed by Wojcik & Hawthorne (2007):

"...sensitivity and the window of detection was typically reported only in very general terms using phrases like 'up to 80 h', or 'up to 5 days', without the caveat that these detection windows apply only to the most extreme cases"

The commercial testing industry has a financial interest in emphasizing the greatest potential of their product. To make it sound or look as good as possible. That's commercialism. That's advertising.

But as the above study indicates this tendency also pervades the scientific literature. That is not so easily explained.

The above study also noted that:

"Most of the research is designed to find the true positives, but it is not reliable for determining the rate of false negatives"

The instrumentality (sensitivity) of the test is near 100%, that is the ability to detect EtG/EtS, yet reliability and validity of the test to accomplish the stated purpose is admittedly zero.

You would probably find the above study interesting, a link to the full study is available here.

NOTE: Subsequent studies have essentially dismantled the original research claims, yet it continues to be the most used method for detecting alcohol consumption.

I know we have discussed heavy drinking. What do you catagorize as heavy drinking? I plan to drink on Friday night and stop about 2am. If I get tested Wednesday at 6:30 would that be enough time for the ETG/ETS from drinking to get out of my system? Heavy drinking has never been defined so I thought I would ask.