A B S T R A C T
Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), non-volatile, direct metabolites of ethanol
have been shown to be suitable markers for the evaluation of social and chronic excessive alcohol
consumption. Previous investigations have shown that the regular use of hair-care products with high
alcohol content lead to an increase of FAEE concentration and consequently gave false-positive results
for the determination of FAEE in hair. In this study we investigated the influence of a long-term hair
treatment with EtOH containing lotion, on the EtG concentrations in hair.
In this study 7 volunteer subjects (classified as either rare, social or heavy drinkers) treated the right
side of their scalp every day during a one or two month period with a commercial hair tonic (Seborin),
which contains 44.0% ethanol (vol%). Collection of hair specimens from both sides of the scalp was done
one day before hair treatment, one week and one month after treatment (for 5 subjects also after two
months of treatment). A hair segment of 3 centimeters (cm) was cut and then washed with water and
acetone, and then pulverized. EtG was quantified by GC/MS after pulverization and 2 h of ultrasonication
in water, extraction by solid phase extraction using Oasis MAX columns and derivatization with HFBA.
Measurements were done in negative chemical ionization mode using EtG-D5 as internal standard.
Comparison of EtG concentration in the treated and in the non-treated hair specimens did not show any
increase at the different dates of collection for the 7 subjects.
In conclusion, these results show that there is no indication for an increase of EtG after use of ethanol
containing hair cosmetics.