TENN. BUSINESSES DOING MORE DRUG TESTING

KINGSPORT - Drug and alcohol testing by businesses is up in
Tennessee, thanks at least in part to a state program with financial
incentives that cut workers' compensation costs.

Tennessee's Drug-Free Workplace Program in fiscal 2005-06 reported
5,891 participating employers, up 1,861 from the 2004-05 employer
participation of 4,030, according to state Department of Labor and
Workforce spokeswoman Milissa Reierson said.

"It's a good program. It does affect employees," said John Leonard,
vice president of Kingsport-based Armstrong Construction Co. Inc. and
a supporter of business drug testing.

"We've positioned our (drug-testing) program to comply with that
(state) program," said Chris Correnti, general counsel for AFG
Industries Inc. "We've had drug testing policies for a number of years."

Eastman Chemical Co. does not participate in the state program,
according to spokeswoman Betty Payne. However, Eastman has a rigorous
program nationwide and "where permitted by law" makes every employee
"subject to a random drug/alcohol testing program," according to a
statement from the company.

"Refusal to participate in requested testing is considered the same
as a positive test," Payne said.

The company also requires pre-employment screening, which must be
negative for someone to be hired; does "reasonable cause" tests; can
require post-on-the-job accident tests; and requires tests of those
who have gone through drug or alcohol rehabilitation "at least once
every three months for a minimum of one year" in addition to the random tests.

Except for the random testing, which is optional under the state
plan, and post-job accident tests that are mandatory, AFG and
Armstrong and others certified in the state program have programs
similar to Eastman Chemical.

Businesses in the program, which as of April 25 included Kingsport
Publishing Corp. that operates the Kingsport Times-News, receive a 5
percent discount on workers' compensation insurance premiums.

"They get a statutory discount on workers' compensation premiums on
the front end," said Jim Farmer, Nashville-based director of the
Tennessee Drug-Free Workplace program that began in 1998 after the
Tennessee General Assembly enacted legislation to approve it.

But the program also makes positive test result just cause for
termination, and it shifts the burden of proof in cases where an
employee has an on-the-job accident and workers' compensation claim,
Farmer said.

In such cases, the employee must be drug tested. If the test comes
back positive, the employee must prove that did not cause or
contribute to the accident. Otherwise, the company would have the
burden of proof, Farmer said.

Leonard said he has seen that happen. In those situations, the
employee receives initial workers' compensation coverage for injuries
but that the insurance company can later seek repayment for that care
from the employee who tested positive.

To participate in the state program, businesses must do drug testing
of employees for pre-employment, under reasonable suspicion and after
on-the-job accidents.

In addition, if an employee remains with a company after a positive
drug test, he or she must undergo a follow-up test after treatment or
rehabilitation.

Armstrong, whose clients include Eastman Chemical, goes a step
further and does random drug testing, which is allowed but not required.

Leonard said that sometimes an employee will have a clean
pre-employment test, have no accidents but then be caught by a random test.

"Nine times out of 10, they say, 'Yeah, you're right,' and we shake
hands and part company," Leonard said. "For us, it's pretty cut and dried."

Leonard said since he's joined Armstrong in 1999, none of the
terminations from positive drug tests have resulted in legal action
against the company. However, the program's Web site said legal
action is possible, although state and U.S. law generally side with
firings when it comes to drug testings.

In contrast, in northern neighbor Canada, Alberta Justice Sheilah
Martin ruled in late June that a construction company discriminated
again an employee, John Chiasson, when it fired him after a
pre-employment drug test showed traces of marijuana.

The judge ruled the man should have been treated as someone with a
disability - drug addiction - not fired.

Accurate?

Farmer said that the drug tests used today are accurate and result in
few false positives.

The "poppy seed muffin" episode of the 1990s "Seinfeld" television
show was based on the truth that drug tests at that time could come
back positive from eating poppy seeds. But it was for morphine, not
marijuana as the show indicated.

However, Farmer said that the new rules increased the allowable level
from 300 nanograms per milliliter of morphine to 2,000 nanograms per
milliliter of morphine.

Some prescription and possibly non-prescription drugs can be detected
by drug tests. That's why Farmer said the program requires a medical
review officer to gather information about what legal prescriptions a
person is taking that could result in a positive result.

For instance, if a person is taking Tylenol with codeine as
prescribed and it shows up that way in the test, the MRO will deem
the test negative.

A whole cottage industry of sorts is on the Internet, where
businesses that claim masking agents or cleansers can either mask
drug use or cleanse the body of any chemical signs.

"These people who operate these Web sites are pretty smart people,"
Farmer said. "There are more of these systems that don't work than do."

He said the idea of powdered urine - just add warm water - would be
impossible to pass off as real urine as long as people aren't allowed
to bring it into the bathroom with them.

"At the collection site, employees must leave coats, purses and
briefcases outside the cubicle where they provide the specimen,"
according to the state drug-testing program's Web site. "The person
collecting the specimen adds a bluing agent to the toilet bowl and
remains in the area directly outside the stall while the specimen is
being given. Immediately afterward, the collector applies a
temperature strip to the specimen to make sure that it matches body
temperature. The collector also checks the specimen for unusual color
and odor. Later, when the specimen arrives at the laboratory,
technicians perform simple tests for gravity and acidity to detect
adulterated specimens."

The testing protocol and standard, as outlined beginning in Tennessee
Code Annotated 50-9-100, is based on U.S. Department of
Transportation drug testings. It follows the federal chain of custody
procedures.

The main difference, aside from some technical issues in how the
testing is done, is that the DOT also requires random testings, which
is optional in the state program.

The state program relies solely on urine tests, although other forms
of drug testing include hair tests, which with longer hair can detect
drug use going back further in time, and swabs of the mouth, like
those used in some DNA testing.

Worthwhile?

The cost of the testing runs $25 to $65 per test, based on the volume
of testing done and location, according to Farmer.

Leonard said the testing costs Armstrong about $35 to $45, money he
said is well worth it to save on the workers' compensation premiums
up front and after an accident by an employee who tests positive.

An article in the July 7 Time magazine titled "Whatever Happened to
Drug Testing?" reported that drug testing nationwide is on the wane,
as are positive test results.

The article said that Quest Diagnostics, a "dominant player in the
more than $1.5 billion a year drug testing field," reported positive
tests had gone from 13.6 percent in 1988 to 4.1 percent in 2005, a
decrease Quest attributed to the deterrent of drug testing.

However, the magazine also said that the American Management
Association reported that the number of employers with drug testing
programs fell from 81 percent in 1996 to 62 percent in 2004.

Farmer said he wasn't aware of such a national decrease but cited
information on the Tennessee Drug-Free Workplace program Web site
that 90 percent of large businesses have drug-free workplace programs
in place, while only 5 percent to 10 percent of small- and
medium-sized businesses have implemented similar programs.

"The irony here is that about 75 percent of employed Americans work
for these small- and medium-sized businesses," the Web site said.
"Workers who want to avoid substance abuse policies at the large
companies take their job search to the smaller businesses, and that's
where they are today!"

Drug abuse drains more than $100 billion from American businesses
every year according to "Working Partners," National Conference
Proceedings Report: sponsored by U.S. Dept. of Labor, the SBA, and
the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The study found that:

38 percent to 50 percent of all workers' compensation claims are
related to substance abuse in the workplace and substance abusers
file three to five times as many workers' compensation claims.

Substance abusers incur 300 percent higher medical costs than non-abusers.

Substance abusers are 2.5 times more likely to be absent eight or
more days a year.

Substance abusers are one-third less productive.

It costs a business an average of $7,000 to replace a salaried worker.

The magazine article, in stark contrast, said employment experts "say
there has been virtually no research indicating that drug tests
improve safety or productivity on the job."

It also cites the "so-called Firestone Study," which the magazine
says was a 1972 speech given to lunching Firestone Tire and Rubber
executives by an advocate for helping employees overcome problems
like alcoholism. It said the "study" never cited statistics.

In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union, in a 1999 study,
found that the federal government in 1990 spent $11.7 million to find
153 drug users among almost 29,000 employees tested, a cost of
$77,000 per positive test.

Still, Farmer said he stands behind Tennessee's drug-testing program
and its benefits.

"I tell companies they can't afford not to do it," Farmer said of the
benefits of drug testing vs. not drug testing.

For more information on the Tennessee Drug-Free Workplace program, go
to http://www.state.tn.us/labor-wfd/dfwp.html#theprob or call Jim
Farmer at (800) 332-2667.