Employers, including some of the nation's most established corporations, favor hair testing over urine testing because it can reveal drug use in the months previous rather than just the days. A snippet of an employee's hair is sent to one of the companies that provides analysis, most often Psychemedics Corp. in Cambridge, and the strand's composition is examined for evidence of drug residue. General Motors, Anheuser Busch, BMW, and Rubbermaid are among the 1,400 companies on Psychemedic's growing client list. The company is also conducting hair tests for more than three dozen schools, five Federal Reserve banks, and the police departments of several big cities. The Boston Police Department just signed on.
Hair testing is also a matter of growing debate.
Members of Congress are also entering the fray, calling for a closer look at the process. Sixteen members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to the secretary of the Army last month asking that the Army review its use of hair testing, in part because of a possible bias against nonwhites. There's too much at stake here. But the companies that provide hair analysis say that what they do is more accurate than other forms of testing. Psychemedics says its own work has an especially good record.