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Test tells if you got drunk ....in 2005
Last updated at 21:52pm on 21.04.07After over-indulging at a party, you might assume that the effects will vanish with the hangover, but a new test can reveal how much alcohol you have drunk during the past few months - or even years.
Likely to be used by companies to screen employees or by courts in child welfare cases, the test can separate moderate drinkers from those who have a problem by looking at chemicals in hair.
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The test can separate moderate drinkers from those who have a problem by looking at chemicals in hair
Avi Lazarow of Trimega Laboratories, the firm offering the test, said: "Current blood or urine tests only allow you to see if alcohol has been drunk in the past few days.
"We can take hair from the head or body and work out a pattern of drinking for many months."
The £345 test works by measuring substances - called fatty acid derivatives - absorbed by the hair as a by-product of alcohol being broken down by the body.
More than three pints, six shots of spirits or six small glasses of wine a day is counted as alcohol abuse. In 2005, 19 per cent of British men and eight per cent of women were classed "heavy drinkers".
