One in eight Britons has cocaine on their fingers

ILLEGAL drugs are so widespread that one in eight of us has traces of cocaine on our fingers, a study has revealed.

The Class A substance was found on the hands of 13 per cent of volunteers, even though they didn’t take drugs.

University of Surrey researchers found that cocaine was the most prevalent drug, but 1 per cent had come into contact with heroin.

Dr Melanie Bailey, lecturer in forensic analysis at the university, said: ‘ Believe it or not, cocaine is a very common environmental contaminant.

‘It is well known that it is present on many bank notes. Even so, we were surprised that it was detected in so many of our fingerprint samples.’

To test the possibility of transferring drugs through a handshake, 50 volunteers were asked to shake hands with a drug user.

‘The drug’s very common’

Fingerprints were then collected from the drug-free participants after contact.

The results showed that the unwashed hands of those who hadn’t taken drugs still had traces of class A substances.

And even after they washed their hands, the researchers were still able to tell who had come into contact with environmental contaminants and those who were genuine drug users.

Mahado Ismail, author of the paper published in journal Clinical Chemistry, said: ‘It’s clear that fingerprint testing is the future of drug-testing.

‘There are many factors that set fingerprint testing apart – it’s non-invasive, easy to collect and you have the ability to identify the donor by using the sample.’

Dr Bailey added: ‘By establishing a threshold for significance on a fingerprint test, we can give those tested the peace of mind of knowing that whatever the result of the test may be, it was not affected by their everyday activities or shaking hands with someone that had taken drugs.’