AccuDiagnostics

Posts Tagged ‘DOT Regulations’

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has recently implemented more stringent drug testing guidelines that will affect all related industry professionals. All parties who conduct drug and alcohol tests are required to be familiar with these new rules, as are all transportation employers, safety-sensitive employees, and service agents. Self-employed individuals, contractors, and volunteers covered by DOT agency regulations will be required to know them as well.

Due to excessive cheating on drug tests, it is now mandatory for laboratories to test all DOT specimens for validity. This means all specimens will be tested thoroughly for adulterants and urine substitutes. The final rule will no longer have easy-to-follow tables and charts outlining exactly what laboratories are testing for. This has been put in place to complicate the work of those who manufacture products designed to deceive drug tests.

As of the implementation of these new procedures, any donor found to posses or wear a prosthetic or other device that could interfere with the collection process will be considered refusing to test. Also, any donor who willfully admits to the collector, medical review officer, or other official that he or she has adulterated or substituted the specimen will be considered refusing to test.

The final rules will also streamline and simplify the process of confirmation in an effort to reduce the number of complicated, laboratory confirmed and MRO-verified results. The final rule also requires that drug-testing laboratories report their semi-annual statistical summaries to the DOT.

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