Exterior Wall Systems

It really is possible to improve safety at work with random drug screening tests. In the Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act gives employers the duty to maintain a safe workplace, establish safe working practices and ensure they are adhered to and to eliminate health risks. Staff who abuse drugs or alcohol at work cause poor health, interfere with productivity and present a huge risk of workplace accidents.

For some occupations, it is clear that it is not safe to use drugs or alcohol. Many of these involve operating a motor vehicle, particularly if passengers are involved. Construction workers, especially on skyscrapers, should also be drug-free. The same can be said of people who operate machinery, whether it is a sewing machine or a computerized piece of equipment that makes automobile parts. People in contact with the public should definitely not have alcohol on their breath or smell like burning leaves.

Even people who are not working in safety-sensitive jobs have a responsibility to keep their wits about them while they are selling you their time and expertise. People in charge of handling money, for example, make more mistakes making change while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. At busy times of day, this can be a tricky business with the clearest of minds, never mind those that are clouded through substance abuse.

Some substances that are prone to being abused can give people an exaggerated feeling of confidence. While a certain level of this may be tolerable in entertainers, it is not a quality you want to see in people who earn their living making multi-million dollar deals.

People use mind-altering substances for one of two reasons, to slow down, relax and chill out or as a stimulant to wake them up and provide 'energy'. Drugs in the first category include tranquillizers, cannabis and sedatives. The second category includes drugs like cocaine or crack.

Sometimes drug use is so obvious in people that you don't need a screening test to determine that they are using. Some of the physical signs are red, watery eyes, pupils may be either dilated or contracted or the speech may be slow and slurred. Some people, on the other hand, are able to pull it off and still function quite highly. In these cases, random screening testing can be very useful.

Establishing a drug testing policy and implementing it are not always straightforward. If an employer wants to carry out random testing, then it must be genuinely random. It is against the law to single individuals out for testing unless, of course, it is related to their job. Another requirement is to obtain the individual's consent before taking any biological samples off them for testing.

There are several ways of conducting these types of tests. One is on-site urine testing. This is the most common method and is widely regarded as the Gold Standard. Some methods of testing rely on sweat or saliva. For detecting drug use over long periods of time in staff whose jobs have a zero tolerance rating for abuse, it can be useful to test a swatch of their hair.