Ann Althouse is a lawprof at UW Madison. The other day she posted that a man came to her door with a clipboard and government ID from the National Health and Alcohol Study, wanting to interview her or her husband. Study participants, volunteers, would be paid a total of $90 the man said, and after completing the interview -- "Questions like age and education, drinking, medicine and drug use,
mood, anxiety, behavior and medical conditions and personality" -- would be asked to spit into a tube. The brochure didn't mention a reason for collecting the saliva, just that it woud be used "to better understand the health care needs of the American people." The man told Althouse's husband the saliva was for DNA, said Althouse, "something about checking one's ancestry for alcohol (and drug?) related problems."
Take a look:
http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-us-government-sent-man-to-our-door.html
Creepy? Uh huh. Not a one-off deal though. Look here:
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/surveillance.html