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Published in 6-25-2008 Federal Register is a Department of Transportation Final Rule:
Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs
In summary:
1. This Final Rule makes it mandatory for laboratories to test all DOT specimens for specimen validity (i.e., adulterants and urine substitutes) and for laboratories to follow all Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) protocols for doing so.
2. Observed collections will afford less privacy in order to guard against employee use of items designed specifically to beat the testing process.
a. Directly observed collections will continue to occur only when there is a specific reason to believe that an employee may be attempting, or have sufficient reason, to evade the testing process.
b. Items such as prosthetic devices designed to carry clean urine will be checked for by observers with both male and female donors. The observer will have the employee raise and lower clothing, and then put it back into place for the observed collection.
c. Observed collections will now be required, rather than optional, for all return-to-duty and follow-up drug testing.
3. In an effort to thwart those who would manufacturer products designed to adulterate specimens, the Final Rule will no longer have easy-to-follow tables and charts outlining the adulterants for which laboratories are testing and the scientific cutoff levels at which laboratories are testing them.
4. Definitions in the Final Rule have been changed to harmonize with the HHS.
5. During an invalid result Medical Review Officer (MRO) review, an employee admission of adulterating or substituting a specimen is now a refusal to test.
6. Pursuant to MRO requests, the Final Rule will close the potentially endless loop on invalid specimen results; and employees requiring negative results [for example, pre-employment tests], when they have medical reasons for providing invalid results, will be able to obtain them through medical evaluations to rule out signs and symptoms of drug use.
7. The Final Rule will also streamline and simplify the potential myriad of complicated laboratory-confirmed and MRO-verified drug test results.
8. The Final Rule requires drug testing laboratories to report to DOT semi-annual statistical summaries on all of their DOT testing.
9. The Final Rule effective date is August 25, 2008.
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| 2. |
Effective
April 29, 2004, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
(FMCSA) amended its regulations regarding the
Safety Performance History of New Drivers.
The
amended regulations specify:
- An employer must request a 3-year drug and alcohol testing
history from former employers of job applicants. This is an increase
from
the previous rule requiring a two year history.
- Beginning on
10/29/04, if requested to provide a drug and alcohol history
on a past employee, an employer must provide this information
within 30 days of request.
- An employer is required to maintain
information on all accidents for 3 years.
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3. |
On 4/13/04, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
issued revised mandatory guidelines on specimen validity
requirements. Effective November 1, 2004, the new requirement establishes the criteria
that must be used by a laboratory for testing and reporting adulterated,
substituted, dilute and invalid specimens. Because of these new guidelines,
it is likely that an increase will be seen in the number of invalid
results requiring MRO -requested direct observations. |
4. |
On 4/13/04, DHHS issued proposed revisions to the Mandatory
Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. The proposal
includes the testing of alternative specimens including hair, oral
fluid and sweat. The revisions also include the use of point-of-collection
testing, required certification of Medical Review Officers (MROs)
[all CDT MROs are already certified], lower cutoff levels for urine
testing of amphetamines and cocaine, and adding MDMA (Ecstasy) as
a drug to be tested. With these proposals by HHS for Federal employees,
the Department of Transportation could decide to adopt the same policies
and apply it to their guidelines. We will keep you up to date! |
5. |
In order to avoid inconsistency with the new DHHS specimen validity
testing requirements, on 11/9/04 the Department of Transportation
(DOT) issued an interim final rule amending certain provisions of
49 CFR Part 40 to change instructions to laboratories and MROs with
respect to adulterated, substituted and dilute specimen results.
- The
lab testing requirements for specific gravity and creatinine
concentration of substituted and dilute specimens will be made
consistent
with the mandatory guidelines.
- The lab reporting requirements
will parallel the mandatory guidelines.
- The DOT will maintain
its position that validity testing is authorized but not mandated.
- DOT
requires the MRO to treat laboratory reported negative-dilute
results with creatinine levels greater than or equal to 2 mg/dl
but less than or equal to 5 mg/dl as negative-dilutes that require immediate
recollection under direct observation.
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