Federal employees will face tougher on-the-job drug tests beginning next year in a move that may influence more businesses to change their drug-screening testing from the standard, easy-to-fool urine test.
The new "alternative tests" would include hair, saliva, and sweat testing -- all of which are considered more accurate than the long-used urine-based tests. The new tests can give employers "more certainty about the timing and scope of drug usage than is now possible solely with urine sampling," Robert Stephenson II, an official with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, told reporters.
Hair testing, for example, can detect drug use over a three-month period. This test can be used in investigations of on-the-job accidents to determine if drug use was a factor in the accident.
"This 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.
The program will not go into effect until SAMSHA develops new guidelines for the testing and receives public comments about the program. Once the program is in place, it will immediately take effect for all of the federal government's 1.6 million employees, and will probably influence many other employers to adopt the newer guidelines.
"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, of OraSure Technologies Inc., which markets a saliva test.
Many companies, such as Kraft Foods Inc., Anheuser-Busch and Georgia-Pacific Corp. have already adopted alternative testing, but others have waited due to a lack of guidelines and standards. Casinos and police departments were some of the first to use hair tests to pre-screen potential employees.
Officials do not expect the alternative tests to completely replace the long-used urine testing, but there are many ways to fool the urine tests and there are products on the market that reportedly help employees beat the test.
New Tools in the Arsenal
The new tests are expected to serve as another tool for employers, based on specific needs. A saliva test, which is taken with a swab inside the employee's mouth, is best at detecting any drug use within the past one or two days.Hair tests, which use a clipping of any employee's hair from the back of the head, can detect many different drugs used any time in the past three months. The sweat test, which requires an employee to wear a patch for two weeks, is usually used to screen employees who are returning to work after drug treatment.
The alternative tests are not without their critics, however. Hair tests can produce false positives due to hair absorbing drugs near the person and there is some indication that dark hair absorbs more drug byproducts than light colored 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 employee advocacy group, National Workrights Institute.
