PRODUCTION OF URINARY ETHANOL AFTER SAMPLE COLLECTION

As the interest in urine drug testing grows, ethanol is frequently inc luded in drug-abuse screening. Collection of urine for drug testing is less invasive than blood collection and is used to screen employees i n a large cross-section of occupations. Because alcohol can be produce d from carbohydrates via fermentation, our interest was to determine: (1)if ethanol could be produced in glucose-positive urine (2) under wh at microbiological conditions would this process occur, and (3) would the urine ethanol concentration be significant. Fourteen urine specime ns were selected from the Urinalysis Laboratory of a large medical cen ter. All specimens were tested for ethanol concentration on the day of voiding and were found to be negative (<0.01 mg/100 mt). Urine glucos e concentrations ranged from 0 to greater than or equal to 2000 mg/dL. Microbiological examinations were performed on all specimens. Storing the samples at room temperature, five of the specimens produced ethan ol over the time course of the study (1 to 21 days) in concentrations ranging from 0.036 to 2.327 g/100 mt. Yeast was identified in the five glucose positive urine samples producing ethanol. Six glucose positiv e urine samples that did not produce ethanol were found to be yeast ne gative. Findings indicate that significant ethanol concentrations can develop from glucose and yeast positive urine, after the day of voidin g.