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Baby shampoos, soaps may cause positive marijuana urine test

Stephanie Wang Contributor
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A positive THC urine test might be indicative of marijuana use, but it also might be caused by using baby shampoo.

A new study found that baby soaps and shampoos are the culprit behind many newborn babies testing positive for marijuana exposure, ABC News reports.

The coincidence was studied after a hospital in North Carolina expressed concern over a high number of newborns testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana.

Testing newborns is routine, especially the newborns of high-risk mothers. Dr. Carl Seashore, a co-author of the study, told Time magazine that one of the reasons for conducting the research was to avoid falsely accusing mothers of exposing their babies to marijuana, an accusation that can lead to arrest.

Ingredients in commonly used baby soaps and shampoos manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno and CVS were all found to produce false positives. Researchers believe that even trace amounts of the chemicals that find their way into urine samples could cause a false positive.

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Stephanie Wang