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Hair today, gone tomorrow
Scientists claim they can catch dope cheats by examining their hair.
Photo: AFP
A hair-sampling technique used to catch rapists is the latest weapon in the war on doping.
The test – the same as that used to identify so-called "date rape" drugs in victims – can also be used to check for anabolic steroids in athlete drug cheats, claim scientists in Britain.
They claimed the method was more accurate than the current system of urine and blood sampling and would offer it to leading British sports officials this week, media reports said.
Unlike urine testing that can only detect illegal substances between two and five days after they have been ingested, hair samples can reveal consumption patterns for up to a year if the hair is long enough, the scientists claim.
Even hair shaved as short as 3mm – described in barber shops as a "number one" cut –would reveal the use of drugs 10 days' earlier, they claim.
Pascal Kintz, president of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists, said: "Athletes taking drugs will use them in training and can simply stop a few days before a urine test.
"If you want a longer window to see what drugs were used, the best demonstration is hair," she told The Daily Telegraph.
Hair-sampling, known as liquid chromatography, is often used in biochemistry and has been used and accepted by the British criminal justice system since 2005 – often in custody battles where parents are suspected of drug or alcohol abuse.
Urine or blood samples take priority over all other tests under current World Anti-Doping Agency rules.