Reasons for False Positives on Nicotine Test

One of the ways to check for presence of nicotine in the body is through a blood test. The presence of nicotine in blood can be a sign that the individual smokes. There are some blood tests that measure cotinine, a chemical produced from nicotine in the body, instead of nicotine. Some blood tests measure the level of nicotine or cotinine in the blood while some other tests give a positive or negative report according to some predetermined levels for these chemicals in blood.

Reasons for false nicotine positives
There can be a number of reasons why an individual can test positive for a nicotine blood test. Reasons range from diet to other medications to environment to human errors in labs. Some details about why your blood test may throw up a false positive are given below.

Diet: The American Academy of Insurance Medicine has found that foods like mustard, broccoli, almonds and cabbage, if consumed before a blood test can lead to a false positive for nicotine. They increase the level of thiocyanate in the body which leads to these faulty results.
Environment: People who work in the area of metal refining or other similar environments which have high levels of metals can have increased levels of thiocyanate in the body. This can throw up a false positive for nicotine.
Medications: Some medications like THC, amphetamines and a few others can also lead to a false nicotine positive.
Nicotine products: People especially on cessation programs use nicotine gums and patches which might indicate a positive in blood, although this is not a false positive. If the doctor is unaware of the cessation program, it might falsely indicate smoking.
Errors: Even though most major labs take utmost care to avoid mix ups in blood samples and test results, human errors do happen, sometimes leading to a false positive for nicotine in blood.

These blood tests to determine the presence or absence of nicotine in blood are done for a number of purposes. They could be for a health insurance, as part of medical tests for a company or for a smoking cessation program.

Reasons for False Positives on Nicotine Test

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