Pubdate: Sun, 14 Apr 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: Business
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Sana Siwolop
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

FOR SOME, DRUG TESTS ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE

Joseph Kinneary's inability to urinate in close proximity to other people 
almost cost him his job. Even now, he is fighting sanctions that have 
relegated him to desk work from his old perch as a boat captain for New 
York City.

It might sound like the stuff of late-night comedy, but the anxiety 
disorder that plagues Mr. Kinneary is a harsh reality for a surprisingly 
large number of men. For some of them, it can be a career killer because it 
deprives them of the ability to produce urine for random drug tests.

Now, though, those who suffer from the syndrome, technically called 
paruresis but more commonly referred to as shy bladder syndrome, are 
beginning to fight back. They argue that penalties exacted against them by 
their employers, from demotions to dismissals, violate antidiscrimination 
laws. They are demanding the right to request alternate forms of drug 
testing. And a few are risking ridicule by going public.

Mr. Kinneary, 48, is one of them. As a sludge tanker captain for the New 
York City Environmental Protection Department, he would often put in 
12-hour days piloting a 320-foot-long vessel through the waters surrounding 
the city. Then, in late December, he was ordered to produce urine for an 
on-the-job drug test, a routine procedure required by virtually all public 
employers and many private ones.

He could not comply. Paruresis can render its victims incapable of 
urinating in public places, like crowded theater bathrooms or airplane 
stalls. In extreme cases, the fear is so strong that victims can relieve 
themselves only at home, meaning that they either have to work at home or 
find a job that is a quick drive away.

It was not the first time that Mr. Kinneary had to undergo the test, but he 
managed to finesse his way through three previous ones. The first time, in 
1992, he actually managed to produce a sample after trying for two days. On 
two other occasions, he sneaked tap water into the cup. In December, he 
sought unsuccessfully to get results by drinking three quarts of water.

Early last winter, both the Environmental Protection Department and the 
Coast Guard accused him of misconduct for failing to take a drug test; the 
city also put him on leave without pay or benefits. It reinstated him in 
late March but gave him a desk job. Meantime, the Coast Guard has begun 
proceedings to suspend his marine license.

"I'm still being asked to give a urine test" by the city, he said. "I feel 
like I'm stuck in the middle, and neither the city nor the Coast Guard 
seems willing to move on my case."

So is his predicament a workplace anomaly? Not according to Steven Soifer, 
an associate professor of social work at the University of Maryland and a 
founder of the International Paruresis Association (www .shybladder.org) 
six years ago with Carl Robbins, a Maryland therapist. Professor Soifer 
says the group has received more than 100 phone calls or e-mail messages 
from shy-bladder sufferers about workplace drug testing, about a quarter 
from people who had lost their jobs or were in jeopardy of losing them.

Though hard numbers on the incidence of shy-bladder syndrome are hard to 
come by, Professor Soifer says some studies suggest that 7 percent of 
Americans and Canadians suffer some form of it.

"Most employers simply assume that the person is making the symptoms up," 
said Professor Soifer, who has himself had the condition since he was a 
teenager.

Though most paruresis suffers who seek treatment are men, women suffer from 
it, too. Theresa Baker, a social worker in Lancaster, Pa., suspects hers 
originated when she was yelled at by a bus driver at the age of 7, an 
incident so frightening that she was unable to urinate the next day before 
going to school.

Ms. Baker voiced a common complaint of paruresis victims: They are shut out 
from other forms of drug testing. In applying for a job at a hospital in 
June 2000, she says, she tried but failed three times to produce a urine 
sample. Her prospective employer treated her kindly but still would not 
allow her to substitute a blood test or undergo a catheterization. In 
desperation, she had a urologist teach her how to catheterize herself so 
that she could produce the urine.

Professor Soifer says most employers and most drug-testing clinics have no 
idea how traumatic it can be for a shy-bladder sufferer to try to urinate 
in a public place. Many mistakenly assume that drinking large quantities of 
water will solve the problem.

"I've known people who have held their bladder for 24 hours," he said. 
"Once the fear kicks in, these people literally are locked up, and usually 
require catheterization in a hospital."

James Murphy, a former maintenance worker for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, 
says he believes that his shy bladder cost him his job. In a six-hour 
effort to produce a urine sample in May 1999, he says, he drank a 20-ounce 
soft drink and about three quarts of water, to no avail. The pain became so 
severe that he found himself screaming, he says, provoking jeers from his 
supervisor and the drug tester.

Over the next 10 months, Mr. Murphy says, he wrote two letters to his 
employer demanding an apology. In one, he remarked -- tongue in cheek, he 
says -- that he could "see how a person could lose control of himself and 
kill somebody." He says he was forced to resign in June 2000 at age 57.

Dwain Keltner, a manager at Mr. Murphy's old department, says he was let go 
partly because of poor performance, including threats to the agency. Mr. 
Murphy disputes that assertion. "They just kept telling me to drink more 
water, drink more water," he said. "I couldn't stand the abuse."

Mr. Kinneary is angry too. Since December, he says, he was found to be drug 
free in one blood test and two hair tests that he paid for and in a saliva 
test that was ordered by his employer after a failed four-and-a-half-hour 
effort to produce a urine sample.

The New York City Environmental Protection Department declined to comment 
on his case. Ken Edgell, a senior drug enforcement official at the 
Transportation Department, which oversees the Coast Guard, says regulations 
allow shy-bladder sufferers who can document their condition to undergo an 
alternative evaluation by a physician.

But paruresis sufferers say it is often impossible to document their 
condition because they are frequently unaware that they have a medical 
problem until they must produce a urine sample. Richard Elliott, an 
investigating officer at the Coast Guard, said that Mr. Kinneary was given 
five days to produce documentation this past winter, but "what he came up 
with was not adequate."

It is an open question whether the Americans With Disabilities Act covers 
people with paruresis, legal specialists say, because they must show that 
their disorder significantly interferes with a major life activity, and 
neither the federal government nor the courts have ruled on whether 
urination fits that category.

While alternative tests to urine sampling exist, experts say it will be 
years before the federal government adopts rules governing them. So those 
afflicted with shy bladder have little option but to hope for the best and 
go to court if they must.

In Connecticut, a 28-year-old scientist and shy-bladder sufferer who 
applied for a job with a large beverage company last spring says that he 
threatened to sue his prospective employer when he learned it would not 
accept the results of a pre-employment blood test. The company hired him 
last summer, but he says he is afraid to go public for fear of losing his job.

Still, in a recent e-mail message, he urged people who find themselves in 
his shoes to fight back, "In the end," he said, "you will win."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager