3. Results and discussion
To test the influence of EtOH containing hair lotions on the EtG concentration in hair, one hair lotion with a high EtOH
concentration was selected.In total 9 different commercial hair lotions (bought in February2010) were analyzed (Table 1). Seborin, which was determined to contain the highest vol% of EtOH (44.0%) was chosen for this study.To avoid false positive results the lotions were also tested for EtG. It was confirmed that all were EtG free.The EtG concentrations in the non-treated and treated scalp side samples are reported in Table 2. To help comparison of EtG concentrations in the treated and in the untreated side, mean concentrations were calculated for both sides: the calculated means show no difference in the treated compared to the untreated side for all of the 9 subjects. In this study no EtG increase could be found after a daily treatment with ethanol containing hair lotion after 1 or 2 months. Regarding the study of Gareri et al. [9] we confirmed that there was no increase above the cut-off of 30 pg/mg. Moreover, there is no indication that EtG levels in hair of rare drinkers may be increased to EtG concentrations compatible with moderate drinkers using hair care products with ethanol. However, this is only true when it can be ruled out that the hair lotion is not contaminated by EtG. In conclusion, our findings indicate that EtG levels seem to be unaffected by ethanol containing hair-care products, in contrast to FAEE levels. Thus it is recommended that EtG analysis should be used to confirm FAEE findings when EtOH hair-care products are used.