What is the preferred specimen (urine, saliva, hair) for use in a workplace drug-testing program? There is no clear-cut answer.
T
he choice depends on a variety of factors including: federal regulations, a company’s level of risk
tolerance, desired detection length, costs, and the type of testing required—(pre- employment, random, reasonable suspicion, post-accident or return-to-duty screening). Each specimen offers particular strengths
and weaknesses and the use of multiple specimens in testing programs can oſten complement each other.
In the beginning there was urine In the late 1980s and early 1990s, private employers started implementing drug- free workplace programs and urine was considered the “gold standard” in testing. It was easy to collect and transport,
inexpensive to test, accurate, provided a detection window deemed adequate by many employers, and at that time was difficult to subvert. However, testing rates from drug
screening programs initiated during the late 80s showed double-digit positive rates falling dramatically over time to current single digit numbers (see Figure 1).
Artificially low positivity rates While urine positivity rates have decreased over time to around a 3% level, suspicion amongst drug screening professionals is that the positive rates on drug screens have become artificially low which may demonstrate that a persistent population of illicit drug users has discovered ways to sidestep or subvert drug tests. Figure 2 depicts Quest Diagnostics’ lab
positive rates from 2002 to 2012 compared to self-reported illicit drug use from a study
www.datia.org
Quest Diagnostics—
http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/physicians/health- trends/drug-testing/
table1.html
Figure 2—Self-reported illicit drug use is almost three times higher than lab detection.
Figure 1
http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/physicians/health-trends/drug-testing/table1.html
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHresultsPDFWHTML2013/Web/ NSDUHresults2013.pdf
conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Consider the advantages of multiple specimen drug testing Employers who have not taken the time to evaluate the various specimens utilized for drug testing, including their strengths and weaknesses, may be positioned with a less effective drug-free workplace program,
especially if their positivity rates are artificially low. For some employers, interest has
shiſted from urine testing alone towards a combination of different specimens to help maximize drug screening program efficiencies and return on investment.
Urine Today, urine remains the most commonly used drug specimen because of its
datia focus 57
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