Nicotine Testing & A New Study Suggesting Even Light Smoking Harms

A new study suggests that the surge in nicotine test use by employers may not be uncalled for, even as it pertains to young adults.

The takeaway from the study summarized in US News and World Report is this: "Smoking just one cigarette stiffens the arteries of young adults by 25 percent, says a new study." Stiffened arteries increase the risk for heart disease among other problems, and suggest the growth of the nicotine test in pre-employment screenings may not be unwarranted. The test went like this:

Arterial stiffness was measured in smokers and non-smokers, ages 18 to 30, at rest and post exercise. 5-6 a day smokers were asked not to smoke for 12 hrs before their first exercise test. Before the second exercise test, smokers were allowed one cigarette. Before the final test, they were asked to chew a piece of nicotine gum.

What were the results of this scientific nicotine test? Post exercise, arterial stiffness in non-smokers decreased 3.6 percent. But smokers' arterial stiffness increased 2.2 percent after exercise. Keep in mind, they hadn't had a cigarette at this point. Once they did, arterial stiffness increased 24.5 percent.

This test is significant for nicotine tests and some of our perceptions about young people smoking. It seems that some people believe smoking when you are young is harmless, as long as you intend to quit. Yet this study shows that it is not - artery health is affected, especially in relation to exercise.

Detecting nicotine in the urine is done by detecting its byproduct, cotinine, through a urine-based tobacco test. Businesses, parents, and schools can purchase these tests online by clicking on the nicotine tests page at Home Health Testing. As more and more studies roll in that affirm the harmful effects of nicotine on the body, it would seem nicotine testing is here to stay.

Benzodiazepines Test A Community in South Wales

There has been a scary trend in one UK community of late - drug dealers specifically targeting children for the sale of the prescription drug Valium. The story resonates because teens are extremely vulnerable to prescription drug abuse - studies have shown that they believe prescription medicines are a safe way to get high.

As a BBC story shows though, that is obviously not the case. But this perception is one of the reasons a variety of prescription drug tests are for sale - a Valium Test or an OxyContin Test to name two are available at Home Health Testing.

In this Wales community, Valium dealers have been selling to school children in their teens. As described by a detective on the case, "After taking these tablets the young people cannot remember where they have been or what they have done from one day to the next." Some have been taken to the hospital.

In the US, prescription drug deaths are astonishingly high - the leading cause (per CNN) of drug overdoses is prescription drugs. If you wish to know if someone is on drugs, a Xanax Drug Test and as said above, an OxyContin Test are available. These tests can help you start a conversation about what is a dangerous habit. The Partnership Attitude Tracking Study found only 24% of teens discussed prescription drug abuse with their parents and 41% of teens believe abuse of medicines is less dangerous than the abuse of street drugs. This is disproven by the documentary "The OxyContin Express," covered in an older article here.

Although discussing and dealing with drug abuse may not be easy, there are many resources on the Internet to help. TheAntiDrug.Com has some great resources. You can also, if you choose, purchase a home drug test from Home Health Testing or visit the directory of prescription drugs on the Home Health Testing site to find which products test for which drugs.

Nicotine Tests & Productivity

As more employers mandate no smoking policies at work and at home for their employees, it may be worthwhile to examine the statistics that underlie these decisions. Why do you have to take a nicotine test at work these days? The CDC provides the answer.

According to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the CDC, "during 2001–2004, average annual smoking-attributable health care expenditures were approximately $96 billion, compared to $75 billion in 1998. [emphasis supplied]" The CDC also pins $97 billion in productivity losses on smoking. The total economic burden then comes out to $193 billion. These are the sort of numbers that have groups like the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office banning smoking, on and off duty.

There are other studies - that may be influencing employers to nicotine test - suggesting smoking is tied to productivity. This study in the Scientific American shows that smokers took on average three times as much sick leave as non-smokers. A year after they quit smoking, individual ex-smokers were about 5% more productive than their smoking counterparts.

It seems then that nicotine tests are not going away when it comes to the workplace. The prospect of saving money on healthcare costs is appealing for many employers. Particular polices may vary, but the trends are clear. Florida even has a state law requiring that paid firefighters are tobacco-free for a year before they start work.

For the smoker then, the risks of smoking continue to multiply. Not only are there risks to your health but also to your chances in the job market. If you wish to use a nicotine test to test yourself or a loved one, you can purchase these at Home Health Testing. Such tests are cheap, easy to use, and extremely accurate. All that is required is a urine sample and five minutes of one's time.

The Oxycontin Express: A New Documentary on Prescription Drug Abuse

As the third installment in the series on prescription drug awareness (see the first entry "The Valium Drug Test & The Xanax Drug Test - Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse, Part I" and the second entry "Prescription Drug Problem Grows") today I present a review of a new movie on Oxycontin abuse and where the drug supply originates. This is a film that drives home the necessity of dealing with this problem on a large scale and even on a home drug test scale, which you can do with an Oxycontin Test.

In this film for Current TV's "Vanguard" series by Mariana van Zeller, the crew finds, in her words, that Florida is becoming "the Colombia of prescription drugs." Oxycontin, when used correctly, provides pain relief on a slow release schedule. When smoked, snorted, or injected, it provides a heroin like high. As Ms. van Zeller says in her documentary, "it's basically heroin, made in a lab." And as heroin can be cheaper than Oxycontin, users sometimes turn to heroin to find the same high. This is a serious problem that can be detected at home with an Oxycontin Test.

On average, 11 people a day die in Florida from prescription drug overdoses. One interviewee in the documentary described how he was able to obtain thousands of pills a month by shopping around Florida clinics.

Ms. van Zeller displays pages of newspaper advertising for Florida pain clinics. All 50 of the top oxycodone dispensing clinics in the United States are in Florida. Florida lacks what is called a "prescription drug monitoring plan." There is no shared database to monitor if you've already received prescription drugs from another clinic. To boot, pharmacies exist on-site at some Florida clinics, making drugs easier to obtain. Knowing this drug has heroin like highs, the existence of an Oxycontin Test is of no surprise and could be a valuable tool in helping someone struggling with this addiction. This test also functions as a home drug test for Vicodin, another commonly prescribed and abused prescription drug. If you think this test could be of use to you you can purchase it at Home Health Testing today.

For anyone unfamiliar with the social and personal affects of Oxycontin abuse, this documentary is a must-see. It exposes many aspects of this new phenomenon (people travelling from Ohio and Kentucky to visit Florida for drugs, people buying drugs to deal them) and lays out the conditions that are allowing this extremely unsafe drug to thrive. Highly recommended.

Prescription Drug Problem Grows

As I wrote previously, prescription drug abuse is increasingly making up a larger share of America's drug abuse problem. Even high profile news outlets like CNN have begun to pay attention to the phenomenon. The upside is that all this attention will lead to people learning more about the harmful effects of prescription drug abuse and the routes to recovery, such as a Xanax Drug Test aka a Valium Drug Test.

A sad string of celebrity deaths has brought a lot of attention to this subject recently. DJ AM, for example, overdosed on OxyContin (also known as oxycodone - you can buy an oxycodone drug test here) while Michael Jackson died from overdosing on a very dangerous prescription drug. The point of Jane Velez-Mitchell's CNN article though is, in her own words, "[that] it's also happening right now, as we speak, to average Joes and Janes in homes all across America."

Velez-Mitchell points out that prescription drugs are now the leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States. Prescription drugs are not a safer way to get high - they can lead to dangerous dependencies and are highly addictive. They can be particularly destructive when paired with alcohol.

One of many ways to deter the use of prescription drugs is to use a Xanax Drug Test, aka a Valium Drug Test, to determine if a prescription drug of the benzodiazepine family has been used within the past 3, sometimes up to the past 7, days. Benzodiazepines are a class of prescription drugs that include Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin. Benzodiazepines are psychoactive drugs that all look the same - their core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. So the purchase of a Xanax Drug Test means that you can detect any of the other dangerous prescription drugs in that family as well, with 96% accuracy.

If you believe that a benzodiazepines drug test is a tool you need to combat prescription drug abuse or addiction, you can visit Home Health Testing to buy a Xanax Drug Test or learn more information.