Re: Diluted drug screens

bgrimes

I'm inquiring as to what other companies do about 'diluted' drug screens. Our policy doesn't address this problem. Our MRO states that a diluted specimen DOES NOT constitute a 'positive' test and it is up to the company as to how they handle it. We usually retest. I 'retested' the first one and it came back dilute again. The young man said he is baffled by this because he got up the morning of the retest, did not drink anything, and headed to the clinic. Right now we are almost desperate to hire two people in our plant. Both have come back with diluted screens, one of them twice. We are thinking of still bringing them on, yet having them sign a statement that says we may send them for a retest at any time we wish. We have random drug screens four times a year. But it is subject to 'lottery type drawing'and they may never be called. What do you guys do under these circumstances? Do you see a problem with having them sign a document stating they agree to be tested on demand?

Don D

Under no circumstances would I recommend hiring them with some sort of signed acknowledgement that they may be tested periodically. That opens the can of worms with the label "Precedent Setting Worms" on the side of the can. Once you do that for one, guess what? I have just spoken with the Drug Testing Consortium that we belong to. The manager says that "Dilute Specimen" will register in, generally, one of several circumstances. Either the person drank lots of water in order to be able to provide a specimen, drank lots of water in an attempt to dilute, or the sample was diluted after being produced. In either event, the specific gravity and creatonin levels read below normal for urine samples and the red flag raises. Doesn't mean positive though. If it tests positive, it is reported as positive. I assume you are not DOT. In that case you could not put the person on a truck UNTIL a negative result was achieved. In your case, she suggested turning the person around immediately for a retest, with no additional passage of time. If you get another Dilute read, the person should be put in the clinic with restricted, observed movement for at least 3 hours and then again tested. If the applicant gets antsy about this, there's a reason for it. If he gets up and leaves or disappears for a minute or two, there's your answer. In most facilities that collect such samples, there is no way to dilute the sample once taken, because the water is either shut off or colored blue and also the dilution would cause the temperature of the sample to register cold. So, it's probably a matter of drinking a bunch of water for one reason OR ANOTHER.

Down_the_Middle

Our current practice for handling "diluted" specimens is exactly as Don D points out. I would not recommend bringing these folks onto your payroll by signing some acknowledgement, until after they have been appropriately tested. A "dilute" specimen is clearly not a valid substance to test, so until you obtain an adequate specimen, these people should not be considered eligible for hire.

WT

We test our drivers for DOT. When they cannot give a sample, they are permitted to drink a certain amount of water. Even with this, we have never had a dilute sample. If the propective employee claims to have not drunk anything in the morning, it appears as though he is lying. Ask yourself this question, "If I were a drug user and did not want to stop, but still wanted to get a job, how would I proceed to pass the drug test?"

Proceed at your own risk.

WOCO Frank

If we go through retesting and there is still an issue with the sample, and we REALLY REALLY want to hire someone with this particular applicant's skills and experiences, we use a different test. Ask your MRO for information on hair testing, for example.

Leslie

Our policy prohibits hiring without a clearance. I've sent applicants up to three times with directions on what they need to do to get a non-diluted result. No matter how bad we may want to hire, if they're still diluted after test three, we cut our losses.

awilliams

I have used hair follicle testing in the past for DOT jobs and it was marvelous. It is amazing the information that can be gleaned from one strand of hair. The downside is that if a person smoked marijuana or took cocaine several weeks ago, it still may remain on the hair follicle test, so it is not a good test for post-accident testing since you cannot pinpoint when the person ingested the substance. It is a good test, however, for pre-hire testing.