What is required for legal blood alcohol, pre-employment drug screening, and paternity testing to ensure integrity?

The integrity of legal blood alcohol levels, pre-employment drug screenings, and paternity testing is critically dependent on maintaining a chain of custody. The chain of custody is a procedural framework that ensures any evidence collected, such as biological samples, is properly documented from the point of collection through to testing and reporting. This comprehensive tracking prevents any tampering, contamination, or misidentification of samples, which is essential in legal contexts where the results may have significant implications.

For legal scenarios, maintaining a clear and documented path of who handled the sample and how it was stored assures that the findings are credible and can withstand scrutiny in courts or other legal situations. The steps in the chain of custody involve labeling samples, keeping secure storage, and meticulous documentation at every stage of testing.

While verbal consent, diagnostic approval, and laboratory accreditation are important components of medical and testing procedures, they do not directly address the specific need for ensuring that the sample remains untampered from collection to analysis, which is key for the legal validity of the test results.