06.25.08
Posted in Drug Abuse and Statistics, Employers, General, Laboratories, Press Release, Regulations, TPA at 5:00 pm by administrator
Published in today’s Federal Register is a Department of Transportation Final Rule:
Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs
In summary:
1. This Final Rule makes it mandatory for laboratories to test all DOT specimens for specimen validity (i.e., adulterants and urine substitutes) and for laboratories to follow all Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) protocols for doing so.
2. Observed collections will afford less privacy in order to guard against employee use of items designed specifically to beat the testing process.
a. Directly observed collections will continue to occur only when there is a specific reason to believe that an employee may be attempting, or have sufficient reason, to evade the testing process.
b. Items such as prosthetic devices designed to carry clean urine will be checked for by observers with both male and female donors. The observer will have the employee raise and lower clothing, and then put it back into place for the observed collection.
c. Observed collections will now be required, rather than optional, for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug testing.
3. In an effort to thwart those who would manufacturer products designed to adulterate specimens, the Final Rule will no longer have easy-to-follow tables and charts outlining the adulterants for which laboratories are testing and the scientific cutoff levels at which laboratories are testing them.
4. Definitions in the Final Rule have been changed to harmonize with the HHS.
5. During an invalid result Medical Review Officer (MRO) review, an employee admission of adulterating or substituting a specimen is now a refusal to test.
6. Pursuant to MRO requests, the Final Rule will close the potentially endless loop on invalid specimen results; and employees requiring negative results [for example, pre-employment tests], when they have medical reasons for providing invalid results, will be able to obtain them through medical evaluations to rule out signs and symptoms of drug use.
7. The Final Rule will also streamline and simplify the potential myriad of complicated laboratory-confirmed and MRO-verified drug test results.
8. The Final Rule requires drug testing laboratories to report to DOT semi-annual statistical summaries on all of their DOT testing.
9. The Final Rule effective date is August 25, 2008.
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11.28.07
Posted in Employers, General, Regulations, TPA at 4:42 pm by administrator
Below is an email notice from W. J. Judge, JD, LL.M.
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I was not quite sure how to approach this issue but everyone on the list, especially those who operate clinics where drug test collections are conducted, needs to be aware of what’s happening in Washington, DC regarding the collection process and upcoming enforcement possibilities. On November 1st the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit held a hearing to address, among other things, the lack of drug and alcohol collection site procedural compliance. This hearing stems from a February 2001 Minneapolis TV expose that revealed 4 of 5 collection sites failed to properly collect samples or have proof of training.
During the hearing representatives of the Government Accounting Office (GAO) indicated that their full investigative report will be sent to Congress in May. That report will show that during their undercover investigation the 24 sites investigated showed “flaws in all phases of the testing protocols.” 22 of the 24 sites failed at least 2 of the required collection requirements. Those sites have been referred to DOT for enforcement action.
FMCSA (Trucking) Administrator John Hill testified and asked Congress for the authority to levy fines against collection sites found to be in violation of DOT requirements. He said the administrative procedures designed to correct collection problem just don’t work. DOT has promised to investigate ways to step up enforcement of qualification and procedural rules.
During the Q&A portion of the hearing training and having proof of training (49 CFR Part 40.33) were mentioned as important solutions to many of the problems uncovered by GAO. In response to the hearing many employers and TPAs are now taking steps to ensure that each collection site person has proof of training. Collection site personnel are increasingly being asked to produce their proof of training.
W
. J. Judge, JD, LL.M.
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08.19.07
Posted in TPA at 10:35 pm by administrator
BY SCOTT BLAKE
FLORIDA TODAY
To get an idea of how pervasive drug testing has become, consider Florida Drug Screening Inc.’s long list of clients.The Palm Bay-based company provides drug-testing for 380 businesses and organizations in Brevard County, and for about 8,000 nationwide.“We have seen a strong increase of businesses wanting to implement a (drug-testing) program,” said Florida Drug Screening President Joe Reilly, who founded the company in 1993.
Drug-testing programs generally started in government, and began spreading to the private sector in the late-1980s. They started to take hold on a widespread basis in the early-1990s, Reilly said.
Today, drug-testing is being done by businesses of all sizes — from large corporations to mom-and-pop operations, he said.
Pip Printing in Palm Bay has only several employees, but the shop has a drug-testing program through Florida Drug Screening.
“We think it’s a good thing to do. It’s the responsible thing to do,” said Beverley Wiggins, who owns the shop with her husband, Leslie. “We’re against drugs.”
The couple require job applicants to take a drug test, and they also have random drug tests — for both employees and themselves.
“If we’re asking the staff to do something, we should also do it ourselves to set an example,” Wiggins said.
Since the couple bought the printing shop last year, no one has tested positive for drug use, she added.
Overall, Florida Drug Screening’s Reilly said, his clients’ drug tests for applicants and employees come back positive about 4.8 percent of the time.
Most of the testing done by the firm is for job applicants, and the majority of employers do not test employees after they are hired, he said.
The growth of Florida Drug Screening’s business isn’t surprising, considering some of the latest data on drugs in the workplace.
About one in 12 American workers — 8.2 percent — has engaged in illicit drug use in the past month, according to a newly released survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The survey of 128,000 adult workers from 2002 to 2004 also found:
The highest rates of employee drug use, by industry, were among restaurant workers, with 17.4 percent reported using in the past month; and construction workers, with 15.1 percent reporting using in the past month.
Four percent of teachers and social-service workers reported using drugs in the past month.
The 8.2 percent overall rate of employee drug use was higher than previous surveys, which found overall rates of 7.6 percent in 1994 and 7.7 percent in 1997. In addition, the survey found that 48.8 percent of full-time workers reported that their employer conducts drug testing, most often prior to being hired; and 30 percent reported that their employer conducts random drug testing of current employees.Many observers “believe these statistics actually underestimate the magnitude of illicit drug use and alcohol abuse problems in the workplace, because substance abusers are likely to be harder to reach,” said Mark de Bernardo, executive director of the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace.
Also, employees are “less likely to self-report their substance abuse, particularly of illegal drugs,” de Bernardo said.
Some organizations feel not enough is being done to address the issue.
A recent survey by the Hazelden Foundation, a nonprofit group that helps people overcome addictions, found that substance abuse and addiction are recognized by human-resource professionals as among the most serious problems in the workplace.
The survey of 1,356 human-resource professionals nationwide also found that employers’ policies and practices are not fully addressing the problem.
Although many companies offer employee-assistance programs, many do not openly and proactively deal with employee substance-abuse issues, according to the Hazelden Foundation.
“Addiction is this country’s No. 1 public-health problem,” said Jill Wiedemann-West, senior vice president of clinical and recovery services at the Hazelden Foundation.
“We know that treating drug and alcohol addiction results in more people finding their path to recovery,” Wiedemann-West said. “It results in more resilient families, more productive workplaces, and healthier and safer communities.”
Among the barriers to helping employees with substance abuse problems, the Hazelden survey found:
Fifty-four percent of human-resource professionals believe that getting employees to acknowledge or talk about the issue is their toughest challenge.
Forty-nine percent of human-resource professionals cited at least one of four personal hurdles to helping employees: lack of experience in identifying substance abuse and addiction; lack of information about treatment options; personal discomfort in approaching employees about the issue; and not having enough time to deal with the issue. Florida Drug Screening’s standard “five-panel” test looks for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamine (”speed”), opiates (such as heroin, morphine, opium) and PCP (”angel dust”).The firm also has an expanded “10-panel” test that also looks for five other categories of drugs: barbiturates (”downers”), methamphetamine (”meth,” “crystal meth”), benzodiazapines (tranquilizers), methadone (commonly used for treating narcotics addiction) and propoxyphene (”painkillers”).
Reilly said some local companies that have drug testing also have confidential employee-assistance programs to provide workers with counseling and other services to help them.
But, often, the programs are underused.
“Companies have these programs, but they don’t promote them enough,” he said.
Contact Blake at 242-3644 or sblake@floridatoday.com.
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