LOINC long common name : Nicotine [Mass/mass] in Hair;
LOINC short name : Nicotine Hair-mCnt;
LOINC description : Hair analysis for nicotine is a bio-marker for smoker status and maybe a valuable
bio-marker of long term exposure that can be readily applied in epidemiological studies
of exposure to tobacco smoke, and more specifically environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).
The long term (up to several months) exposure assessment is the major advantage. Uncertainties
over the mechanism by which drugs are incorporated into hair lead to caution in the
use of hair in forensic toxicology and medicine, but this may not be a serious issue
for ETS studies. Issues do remain with this testing however, such as how hair color,
chemical treatments of hair, or type of hair texture can affect results. [PMID: 12198265];
Has component