| April
16, 1998
By Lynn Hicks -Register Business Writer
DRUG TESTS BRING WORRIES OF ACCURACY
"I go to extraordinary lengths before I call a positive."—Dr.
David
Berg, Medical review officer
The water-cooler talk is true: Poppy seeds can produce a positive
test for heroin, and cold medicine can suggest methamphetamine.
But medical experts say workers have little to worry about as changes
in Iowa’s drug-testing law go into effect today.
That’s because the new law requires medical review officers to
evaluate drug tests. They act as judges, determining whether the
positive test is a result of illegal drug use or a legitimate medical
cause.
"I’m there to protect people from false positives as much as
I’m there to find drug (evidence) for their employers," said
Dr. David Berg, an MRO and director of occupational medicine for
the Des Moines office of HealthSouth. "I go to extraordinary
lengths before I call a positive."
Accuracy is a concern as private-sector employers gain more power
to test employees for drugs and alcohol. Occupational health clinics
and laboratories say the law could lead to more business, but they
don’t expect a rush starting today.
Business groups have been pushing for a change for years, and some
construction companies and other safety-sensitive employers are
moving quickly to start testing, said James Aipperspach, president
of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. But most are still
learning about the changes and deciding what options to take.
Employers are not required to test. They could randomly test workers
for alcohol and other drugs. They could test if they have reasonable
suspicion that a worker is under the influence. They could require
workers to get treatment after a confirmed positive drug test, or
they could fire them. Critics say the law gives employers more power
than police. They also question the reliability of testing, and
say the workers would have little recourse if they falsely test
positive.
The new law protects employers from liability unless they clearly
should have known a false positive test result was in error and
ignored the correct test result.
The Iowa Civil Liberties Union isn’t saying whether it will fight
the law. But lawyers and legislators have talked to the group about
a challenge, said executive director Ben Stone.
Random testing could result in more false positives, said Craig
Zwerling, a University of Iowa professor and expert on drug-testing.
Statistics
vary widely on the likelihood of false positives, depending on the
test and the lab. Civil libertarians say 5 percent is a conservative
estimate.
Medical experts acknowledge that false positives
aren’t impossible. But they say urinalysis, the most common means
of drug testing, has improved.
The
Iowa Methodist Medical Center laboratory’s testing is more than
99 percent reliable, said Rich Snyder, who supervises drug testing.
The lab uses a combination of gas chromatography
and mass spectrometry, which is considered by most experts to be
the most precise procedure for the detection of banned substances.
The new Iowa law requires such a technique to be used to confirm
positive tests.
Employees can request a second confirmatory test
at another lab, at their expense. If that test comes back negative,
the employer must reimburse the employee.
But tests still read some innocuous substances as
illegal drugs. Because of the poppy seed problem, the federal government
is raising the threshold for the detection of opiates in urine.
Additional tests can be done to determine whether a Vicks inhaler
is causing a methamphetamine positive, experts say.
Medical review officers also look at more than the
test, searching for evidence of needle tracks or asking whether
the person is on a prescription drug.
Testers also watch for adulterated samples. An industry
is booming on the Internet, providing drug users with tips and products
to taint their tests. Snyder said most of the methods, such as mixing
the urine with bleach or soap, are easy to catch.
Medical
review officers also are on guard for every excuse imaginable. They’ve
heard them all, including the one gold-medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati
gave when he tested positive during the Olympics. Second-hand marijuana
smoke will produce a positive test only in extreme cases, research
has shown.
"There’s no way," Berg scoffed.
Reporter Lynn Hicks can be reached at hicksl@news.dmreg.com
or (515) 284-8211. |
