More Employees Challenging Drug-Test Results August 22, 2001
News Summary
A growing number of employees are challenging positive results of drug tests, claiming that errors and careless practices in the drug-testing industry are costing them their jobs, the Scripps Howard News Service reported Aug. 10.Davey Burroughs, who worked for several years at a technology company in Durham, N.C., was escorted off company property after a drug test revealed traces of cocaine in his urine. "I told them it's not possible, because I'm not a user," Burroughs said. "But the doctor said there was no way it could show a false positive, and that I must have either smoked or inhaled it. It was an absolute horror."
To clear his name, Burroughs purchased a test kit at a pharmacy and took it to a Durham clinic to be checked. It came back negative. He was later reinstated to his position.
Several substances are known to cause false-positive readings in drug tests. For instance, Advil mimics marijuana, diet pills and nasal sprays mimic amphetamines, poppy-seed rolls or poppy-seed dressing could cause a false positive reading for heroin, tonic water could mimic cocaine, and Benadryl can give a false positive reading for methadone.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, just 4.5 percent of tests conducted at large U.S. corporations come back positive, a drop from more than 18 percent in the late 1980s.
But when a test does come back positive, today's workers are more likely to fight the result.
Last fall, 56 laboratories that validate drug tests on 1.7 million federal employees and 8.3 million workers at airlines, trucking firms and other companies regulated by the government, were investigated. The audit on 13 million specimens found that just 300 test results were incorrect and had to be reversed.
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