Hair analysis is a valuable tool in clinical and forensic toxicology. It is used to demonstrate drug exposure when cases of chronic intoxication, use, abuse, or single dose consumption need to be diagnosed in the context of facilitated crimes, withdrawal controls, doping controls, or workplace drug testing.
However, scalp hair is exposed to sunlight or artificial light, which may change the content of drugs and metabolites. Therefore, knowledge of photo degradation is important for meaningful assessment.
In this brief Application Note, a team of researchers from the University of Padova, Italy, report on their study on photolability of drugs. Atlas SUNTEST CPS+ was used for photostability testing of drugs of abuse in human hair.
