Freedom Lawyers of America

>
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-drug-testing,0,7707329.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
>
> NEW YORK -- The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee
> drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and
> sweat, a shift that could spur more businesses to revise screening for
> millions of their own workers.
>
> The planned changes, long awaited by the testing industry, reflect
> government efforts to be more precise in its drug screening and to
> outmaneuver a small but growing subset of workers who try to cheat on
> urine-based tests.
>
> Some businesses have already adopted alternative testing, despite
criticism
> by privacy advocates. But others have held back, partly awaiting
government
> standards.
>
> Alternative testing methods would give employers more certainty about the
> timing and scope of drug usage than is now possible solely with urine
> sampling, said Robert Stephenson II, an official with the federal
Substance
> Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
>
> That could be particularly valuable in situations like investigations of
> on-the-job accidents, to determine not just whether an employee uses drugs
> but if usage occurred recently enough to be a cause.
>
> Alternative testing will "really ramp up our ability to increase the
> deterrent value of our program, which is basically the whole bottom line,"
> said Stephenson, director of the agency's Division of Workplace Programs.
>
> Stephenson said it would likely be a year until the new policies take
> effect for the nation's 1.6 million federal workers. The agency, known as
> SAMHSA, sets guidelines and administers the testing.
>
> All federal workers are eligible to be tested. SAMHSA, a division of the
> Department of Health and Human Services, tests fewer than 200,000 workers
a
> year. The decision about who is tested often depends on the sensitivity of
> their job.
>
> But because its standards are followed by regulatory agencies who conduct
> testing in industries they oversee, SAMHSA is responsible for about 6.5
> million of the 40 million workplace drug tests done each year by U.S.
> employers.
>
> The agency's testing standards are also widely followed by thousands of
> other employers, public and private.
>
> The proposed changes are due out "literally any day," Stephenson said. He
> would not discuss details of the proposals before their release.
>
> Changes would not likely go into effect until early next year, after the
> agency solicits public comment, finalize guidelines and prepare for the
> transition. Once that happens, many other employers could follow suit,
> government and industry officials say.
>
> "There's no doubt about it that SAMHSA's guidelines become the standard
for
> the industry whether you're a regulated employer or not, and so what
SAMHSA
> does will have wide-ranging impact," said Kenneth Kunsman, a marketing
> executive with OraSure Technologies Inc., which makes a saliva testing
kit.
>
> More employers are already using alternative testing. But many have held
> back because of the lack of standards, said Laura Shelton, executive
> director of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association, which
> represents test manufacturers and labs.
>
> Alternative tests hold appeal because their accuracy cannot be foiled with
> products sold to mask drug residue in urine, say company and government
> officials, noting that the tests are extremely accurate.
>
> But privacy advocates express doubts, pointing to cases of police officers
> and others who allege false positives because their hair absorbed drugs
> around them, as well as research suggesting dark hair soaks up more drug
> byproducts than light hair.
>
> "There's a lot that would need to be done before these types of tests, in
> our minds, would be sufficient to used for workplace testing," said Jeremy
> Gruber, legal director for the National Workrights Institute, an employee
> advocacy group.
>
> The screening industry has worked in recent years to promote alternative
tests.
>
> Casino operators and local police departments were among the first to use
> hair testing for pre-employment screening because it allows detection of
> drug use over much longer periods than urine. It is also now used by
> employers including Kraft Foods Inc. and brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos.
>
> "Urine tests were fallible in a variety of ways," said Alan Feldman, a
> spokesman for MGM Mirage, which adopted pre-employment hair testing for
all
> its 42,000 workers in 1993. "We want our people to be sharp."
>
> Psychemedics Corp., the largest hair testing company, has about 2,600
> corporate clients and last year did about 400,000 tests, vice president
> Bill Thistle said.
>
> Saliva testing has only been marketed for workplace drug testing for a few
> years. Companies including paper manufacturer Georgia-Pacific Corp. have
> adopted it.
>
> Kunsman said the labs affiliated with his firm this year expect to process
> 60,000 to 70,000 workplace drug tests a month.
>
> Government officials and testing industry executives say the new tests are
> less a replacement for urine screening than as additional tools in
> employers' arsenal.
>
> "In different cases, one specimen may be better than the other," said Dr.
> Donna Bush, drug testing team leader at SAMHSA's Center for Substance
Abuse
> Prevention.
>
> Saliva testing, done using a swab that looks much like a toothbrush but
> with a pad instead of bristles, is best at detecting drug use within the
> past one or two days.
>
> Hair testing, in which a sample about the thickness of a shoelace is
> clipped at the root from the back of the head, allows detection of many
> drugs used as far back as 3 months.
>
> Sweat testing, in which workers are fitted with a patch that is worn for
> two weeks, is used to screen people who have returned to work after drug
> treatment.
> * ___
>
> On the Net:
> http://www.drugfreeworkplace.gov
> http://www.orasure.com
> http://www.psychemedics.com
> http://www.datia.org
> http://www.workrights.org
>