TY - JOUR A1 - Ammann, Dominic A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Kohl, Anka A1 - Hänisch, Jessica A1 - Nehls, Irene T1 - Degradation of the ethyl glucuronide content in hair by hydrogen peroxide and a non-destructive assay for oxidative hair treatment using infra-red spectroscopy T2 - Forensic science international N2 - The assessment of quantification results of the alcohol abuse marker ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in hair in comparison to the cut-off values for the drinking behavior may be complicated by cosmetic hair bleaching. Thus, the impact of increasing exposure to hydrogen peroxide on the EtG content of hair was investigated. Simultaneously, the change of absorbance in the range of 1000–1100 cm-1 indicative for the oxidation of cystine was investigated non-destructively by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) using pulverized portions of the respective hair samples. Hair samples treated with hydrogen peroxide consistently displayed a significantly increased absorbance at 1040 cm-1 associated with the formation of cysteic acid. The EtG content decreased significantly if the hair was treated with alkaline hydrogen peroxide as during cosmetic bleaching. It could be shown that ATR-FTIR is capable of detecting an exposure to hydrogen peroxide when still no brightening was visible and already before the EtG content deteriorated significantly. Thus, hair samples suspected of having been exposed to oxidative treatment may be checked non-destructively by a readily available technique. This assay is also possible retrospectively after EtG extraction and using archived samples. PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] KW - Hair testing KW - Oxidation KW - Bleaching KW - Cysteic acid KW - HPLC–MS/MS PY - 2014 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/31755 AN - OPUS4-31755 SN - 0379-0738 SN - 1872-6283 VL - 244 SP - 30 EP - 35 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany