U.S. ISSUES NEW RULES ON DRUG-TEST ACCURACY

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Department unveiled rules intended to
encourage more accurate drug testing of airline workers and other
transportation employees and to ensure that workers have an opportunity to
challenge results.

But the rules -- which cover 8.5 million transportation workers nationwide,
from truckers to pipeline operators -- don't go as far as some union
officials would like in defining the procedures companies must follow in
administering drug tests. The rules are also likely to draw fire from
private drug-testing labs, whose trade group has slammed such proposals in
the past as an attempted "public blacklisting" of the industry.

In October, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was
launching inspections of all 65 federally certified drug-testing labs that
test transportation workers after a case involving a Delta Air Lines pilot
raised questions about how samples were validated at a lab in Kansas. The
airline initially fired the pilot and four flight attendants after LabOne
Inc. reported their urine samples had been "substituted." After the lab's
findings were questioned by pilots-union leaders, the airline offered to
reinstate the employees because of doubts about the results.

Transportation Department officials said the rules weren't related to the
irregularities cited at LabOne or the Department of Health and Human
Services inquiry. They said the rules are an attempt to tighten standards
in areas of the drug-testing industry that have been loosely regulated
until now.

One department official noted that many employers started out running their
own drug-testing programs in house. "Now, many outsource [drug testing] to
third-party providers, and the whole nature of the way the programs are
administered has changed," the official said. "There wasn't a whole lot
written about what these persons should be doing."

Among other things, the new rules would give transportation workers greater
opportunity to challenge "validity tests," in which companies test workers'
urine samples for evidence of substitution or adulterants, substances that
conceal drug use. Currently, if workers fail a validity test, they can't
demand a second test of the sample by an independent party; the new rules
would allow them to do so.

The rules would also direct companies not to contract with drug labs that
have violated federal drug-testing guidelines. That provision has come
under attack by the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association,
which represents drug labs and substance-abuse programs. The organization,
which didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday, has questioned whether
the Transportation Department has the authority to impose such penalties.

Most of the new rules will take effect in August, although a few, such as
the requirements on validity tests and penalties for companies that violate
drug-testing rules, will take effect next month.

Robert Morus, a spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association, said the new
safeguards don't guarantee that workers whose drug-test results are proved
false will be able to clear their names. He said some airline workers whose
test results were later tossed out have been allowed to reapply for their
old jobs, only to be placed on probation and accelerated drug-testing
schedules when they returned.

The new rules are "a mixed bag," Capt. Morus said. "There are some good
things, but they didn't settle all the issues. ... There's a serious crisis
in the [drug-]testing business, and they seem to not want to reveal how
serious it is."