Pubdate: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 Source: The European Contact: ("Shorter letters are preferred") Website: http://www.the-european.com/ Author: Cath Blackledge MORE FIRMS PUSH DRINK AND DRUGS TESTS PAUL GASCOIGNE, the English footballer, knows it and a long line of film-star patients at the Betty Ford Clinic do too: drink or drugs and work do not mix. It is also the message that European bosses are starting to push to their workers. Workplace drug testing is already a booming business in the United States. Since 1987 the practice has grown by more than 277 percent, creating an industry worth $350 million. More than 88 per cent of US firms run some form of drug-testing regime and 40 per cent enforce random testing. Half of the county's chief executives believe that alcohol and other drugs cost them between one and 10 per cent of the payroll. In Europe, the sector is still in its infancy, but Britain and Germany are leading the way in introducing workplace testing programmes. Flushing out drugs in the workplace can be costly with a basic urine test starting at about UKP30 ($50) per sample. But that has to be weighed against a total bill to industry resulting from alcohol and illicit drug-taking estimated to be around UKP3 billion a year, says the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence (ISDD) in Britain. Although difficult to measure, drug abuse is estimated to cost UKP800 million a year, with 15 per cent of large British firms reporting drug use as a problem at work. Drink remains the major problem, however, with 35 per cent of large firms saying they suffer the consequences. Up to 14 million working days a year are thought to be lost through excess alcohol. The sector in Britain was given a boost earlier this year when the government spelt out its drugs policy, appointing a drug tsar and encouraging companies to have a drugs and alcohol policy. Since then, says Dr Dave Osselton, business manager for UK- based Forensic Science Services (FSS), the number of British-based companies asking for help has risen sharply. Construction and transport - where safety is a big issue - are the main industries concerned, but so are the city of London's banks and traders, worried that a drugged-up dealer can do a lot of damage on the stockmarket floor. Germany has seen testing for drink and drug abuse grow rapidly in the past two to three years, while central Europe is also showing an interest. However, despite the increase in workplace testing seen in Britain and Germany, the figures can be slightly misleading. Many of the firms operating workplace testing have American parents and are merely following US policy. The American zeal to flush drugs out of the workplace is not as strong in the majority of European countries. The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are against the practice, seeing it as an infringement of privacy. "Dutch banks won't touch drug testing. It's against their culture," says Dr Gareth Spire, chief executive of City Medical Services, a London-based health clinic and testing outfit. "In France, there is a very large resistance from trade unions," says Michel Craplet, medical adviser for Association Nationale de Prevention de l'Alcoolisme. Although European unions are generally supportive of workplace drug testing within some industry sectors, they argue that companies should also take a close look at how workloads can increase stress levels, possibly leading to alcohol and drug use. Evidence from the US suggests that workplace drug testing does act as a deterrent. The number of positives is decreasing year-on-year. In 1988, the SmithKline Beecham (SB) drug-testing index gave an annual "positivity rate" for the US of 13.6 percent. For the first six months of this year, with more than 2.7 million tests performed, the figure was 4.9 percent. However, the SB index also reveals a disturbing trend - the number of employees trying to cheat the tests. In the first 10 weeks of screening, says SB, approximately 400 job applicants tested positive for nitrites, which are used as masking agents to prevent the detection of drug use. Test services operating within the UK estimate that, on average, between 10 and 15 per cent of all tests are positive. "We haven't come up with a set of results that hasn't had a positive test in the first set of the testing of the sample," says Osselton of FSS. City Medical Services, which has been testing in the city since l992, agrees with the positive figure and points out that this has remained fairly static. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry