How Does Drug Testing Work?

Workplace drug testing is becoming more and more the norm across Australia, with many industries even regulating and enacting their own rules about how, where, and how often employees can be tested. If you're involved in an industry that performs onsite drug and alcohol testing, you may be interested in learning about how such testing works in this country.

The oldest, and still most frequently used, method of drug screening is urine analysis, or urinalysis. During this process, a candidate will be asked to supply a test sample. This sample (usually given within hearing range of a professional), will be sealed in a specific way, and will follow a strict chain of custody until it reaches a testing facility. This is to ensure that no one can tamper with the sample. Once a laboratory receives the sample, it will be generally split into two parts. Drug screening using urinalysis looks not for drugs themselves, but for the metabolites from drugs (when a substance is broken down by the body it leaves trace amounts of other related but different substances behind, these are known as metabolites). Usually, one half of the sample will undergo an immunoassay, a preliminary screening that tests for drug metabolites by attempting to get reactions with other substances. If this initial test proves positive, a second, more complicated test will usually be done, involving gas chromatography to confirm the findings of the first test. Drug alcohol testing is considered so reliable because positive findings are tested twice, decreasing the risk of false positives.

Nowadays, it is becoming more common for oral drug tests to be used for the drug screening process. Generally, this is because of convenience. It is much easier to collect a sample of someone's saliva than it is to get a urine sample. Plus, a registered professional can take a saliva sample, thus knowing exactly where it came from without the chance of samples being switched or adulterated. During this drug screening process, a small swab is inserted into someone's mouth, and held there for two minutes. The swab will then be taken for testing to a laboratory. However, a disadvantage of this form of drug screening is that it is fairly ineffective for picking up long time drug use. It is useful for detecting current drug and alcohol use though.

The use of oral workplace alcohol testing is seen by some as a good compromise for those concerned about personal privacy. Because it is only useful for diagnosing use at the current moment (when drug or alcohol use could be impacting your job performance) and does not speak about your past history, oral drug screening does not impact on personal privacy issues as much as urinalysis does. Both methods are effective ways of performing onsite drug & alcohol testing, however.

This article has been taken from http://mediscreen.net.au/articles/?p=1975