Rippon: My drugs test was positive after I ate poppy seeds in bread
Traces of morphine in star’s body from loaf
TV host Angela Rippon has told of her shock when she gave a positive drug test – after eating poppy seeds in bread.
Analysis showed the 72-year-old had traces of morphine, derived from opium, in her body.
Angela ate a loaf of poppy seed bread and a poppy seed bagel over three days during a probe for the BBC’s Rip Off Britain: Food.
She investigated after a contributor was fired from a power station job when a routine drug test showed opiates in his system, from the poppy seed bread he had toasted for his breakfast.
Angela said: “I can promise you that I have never taken anything stronger than an over-the-counter painkiller. I don’t even smoke.
“In more than 50 years of broadcasting I’ve found myself in extraordinary situations. But I must say I never thought I’d find myself taking a drugs test, let alone have it come back positive.”
SAFETY
Queen Mary University toxicology expert Professor Atholl Johnston found 30 ng/ml of morphine in a urine sample.
“That sounds terrible,” she said. “Does that mean that if I was taking a test as an employee, that my employers could say there’s a possibility, Rippon, that you’re a drug taker?”
Prof Johnston explained she did not have enough to be struck off according to European guidelines, where the limit is 300 ng/ml, but levels change from seed to seed.
He said: “The amount of morphine in a poppy seed will vary quite considerably depending on when and where it was harvested.
“In fact when tests have been done there’s about a six-hundred fold variation in the amount of morphine in poppy seeds.”
The show explained how drugs tests are more common in workplaces where employees drive, operate heavy machinery or where the job is a matter of public safety.
Employees are advised to declare if they have consumed poppy seeds before taking a drug test.
It’s terrible. Could an employer say: Rippon ... you’re a drug taker? ANGELA RIPPON AFTER TEST SHOWED POSITIVE