W6: Novelties in Hair Analysis and Interpretation Issues

The document discussed the increasing importance of hair analysis in forensic toxicology and its applications in various cases such as assessing driving ability, proving abstinence, postmortem investigations, drug-facilitated sexual assault claims, and child custody investigations. It highlighted that hair analysis can detect drug ingestion or exposure, but recent findings showed that external contamination through sebum or sweat could affect results. The document emphasized that hair samples should ideally be collected from the vertex or occipital scalp region due to consistent growth rates, though this is not mandatory. It concluded that interpreting hair analysis results has become more complex and requires careful consideration of new developments and trends, urging experts to critically assess the validity of previous data.