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The Basics about Employment Drug Tests
There are many contexts where employee drug tests are appropriate and needed, and employees may be tested in a variety of different ways. It is a means for businesses and corporations to protect their own interests, and when done correctly, testing can be an extremely helpful tool. Here are a few of the basics about the two most commonly used employment drug tests, when they are appropriate, and what they involve.
Drug tests look for evidence of specific substances in a person's blood stream such as marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, and a host of other illegal substances. If an employer chooses, he may also screen for the presence of alcohol if working conditions demand it. The presence of these substances may be detected via urine drug screens, hair drug testing, hair alcohol testing, saliva drug screens, and even sweat drug screens.
Testing may be routine (as in pre-employment screening) or random. Statistics show that random testing is the most accurate and effective, since the employee is not in a position to prepare for or tamper with results.
Urine testing
Employees are tested at a collection site where the specimen is collected in a special cup and sealed with a tamper-resistant cover. A good compliance service will have its own analysis facilities on site, but some services still outsource specimens to a lab for analysis. A Medical Review Officer (MRO) will contact employers with doctor-confirmed results of the testing. If there has been a positive reading, the MRO may interview the employee to determine if the results may have been a false positive.
Hair drug testing and hair alcohol testing
A strand of hair will contain a person's drug history for the last 90 days and is considered to be one of the most effective means of testing today. Because sweat and scalp oils may affect results, laboratories will often wash hair samples several times to eliminate the possibility of contamination.
High consumption of alcoholic beverages is also manifest in the content of a person's hair. Fatty acid ethyl esters and EtG are substances that are only present in hair if excess amounts of alcohol have been consumed and are fairly easy to detect. Although hair alcohol testing is good as a preliminary screening, it is not usually used as a definitive test. However, using hair for testing is a cost-effective and non-invasive way to do preliminary testing on large numbers of employees.
Employers should be sure to use a compliance service with a proven track record of dependability and accuracy to help them carry out employment drug testing. When people's livelihoods, corporate liability, and public health are at issue, it is important to have the very best people on the job that will take care to get the most accurate results possible.
About the Author Compliance Safety Systems (http://www.compliancesafetysystems.com) is dedicated to providing customers with the latest in compliance and safety technology. We deliver professional & reliable employment drug test services. Art Gib is a freelance writer.
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