NEWS SPECIAL FEATURE HIGH AND DRY
The UK’s growing drug culture requires more rigorous workplace testing to provide a safe working environment, says Eurofins.
In May, Home Office Minister Ben Wallace described the UK as “Europe’s biggest consumer of cocaine.” It is a trend believed to be fuelling the growing levels of violence and anti-social behaviour which is likely to have major implications for UK companies.
Eurofins Scientific, a forensic toxicology company specialising in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing, says the UK’s growing drugs culture is responsible for a rapid increase in the adoption of workplace drug and alcohol testing by businesses.
According to Eurofins Scientific, in order to keep staff safe and allay fears of accidents, employers are proactively implementing drug and alcohol testing policies. This is usually preceded by an ‘amnesty’ period, allowing staff with dependencies time to address their problem ahead of being screened for the presence of drugs or alcohol.
Gary McCutcheon, Eurofins Commercial Manager for Workplace Drug Testing, said: “The UK has developed a drug abuse problem but people assume it is all recreational. However, drug taking does not start at 5pm
on Friday. The workplace is a major part of a society where drugs are a daily reality.”
The problem is such that the market for forensic toxicology has been predicted to rise from £167m today to £231m by 2019 – more than a 40% increase – as businesses look to protect their staff and brand reputations.
Cocaine and cannabis are the most common drugs detected in the workplace but there is a growing trend towards abuse of prescription medication, NPS (novel-psychoactive substances) or so-called ‘legal highs’ and steroids which, according to experts, can trigger aggression.
He said that drug testing was mandatory in many industries, including the transport sector, but the harmful implications of letting drug and alcohol abuse go unchallenged were such that a wider selection of businesses were opting for screening.
Workplace drug and alcohol testing is now common across a wide range of sectors including the construction industry where, due to the high-risk operational environment, extreme care has to be taken in all areas of work. Workplace drug and alcohol testing is also widely used in many other sectors including maritime, aviation, manufacturing, food-processing and logistics.
However, Gary McCutcheon said the harmful implications of letting drug and alcohol abuse go unchallenged were such that wider selection of businesses were now opting to implement testing policies or enhance existing measures.
He said: “Gone are the days when employers could turn a blind eye to drug and alcohol abuse. The drivers for this are more rigorous regulation including the Corporate Manslaughter Act, and a greater emphasis on health and safety in the workplace.”
As testing regimes – which are based upon urine, saliva and even hair samples which can detect what has been taken and when over a three-month period – are so accurate, Gary predicted firms will have to introduce amnesties to prevent potential stigmatisation.
“It will be normal for businesses to announce amnesties at least two months ahead of drug testing being introduced,” said Gary.
“This will allow people to discreetly raise the issue with their employers, particularly if they have addictions to prescription or recreational drugs. It is a better and more pre-emptive way of dealing with the issue than being caught and stigmatised by the accuracy of the test.”
He added that the UK was lagging behind the USA, where drug testing policies and regimes are common place and have been a fact of working life for many years.
www.eurofins.co.uk 10
www.tomorrowshs.com
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