Pubdate: Thu, 08 Apr 2004
Source: Macon Telegraph (GA)
Copyright: 2004 The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.macontelegraph.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667

NEW RULES ON THE HORIZON WILL NEED TO BE MONITORED

The federal government has been devising a new drug testing policy for a 
number of months that will add to the present urine test now required of 
federal employees and would permit testing of hair, saliva and sweat. The 
proposals are subject to a 90-day comment period and they would require 
another six months to a year to implement.

There are several reasons why the government wants to expand the kinds of 
samples it can use in keeping drug use out of its agencies that employ 1.6 
million workers. First, the methods to avoid or spoil urine samples are 
many, and the federal government is not the only entity having problems 
making sure the tests are rooting out possible drug abuse. New regulations 
have been sought by private industry for almost 10 years. Hair samples, 
particularly, can show evidence of drug and alcohol use for the past three 
months and can point to a person's being a heavy or light drinker.

Worker organizations will inspect the new policies closely, and they 
should. There are several factors that can effect the outcome of drug tests 
made using the other specimens. For instance, hair color, according to the 
proposed guidelines, "influences drug incorporation," with black hair 
showing the most and blond the least. But those results are from animal 
studies, and human information is limited.

Saliva can be influenced by what the guidelines call "environmental 
contamination," and chewing gum can "lower drug concentrations in oral 
fluid." Sweat has its own drawbacks. The guidelines state, "The 
incorporation of drugs into sweat is poorly understood." The government 
plans to use these other samplings in addition to urine to make it more 
difficult for someone to thwart the tests.

The new guidelines have also raised concerns that the government and 
employers could collect DNA from the samples. It is technically possible. 
The government uses only authorized private laboratories. While hair, sweat 
and saliva tests run about the same amount of money as urine tests, DNA 
testing is an entirely different financial ball game. There is no enabling 
legislation to create a federal DNA database, and private industry would 
not want to incur the additional expense. Still it is wise for worker 
rights groups to keep an eye on the procedures. While the guidelines are 
270 pages, there's just one paragraph regarding protecting employee records 
that refers to existing laws.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart