NEW RULES ON THE HORIZON WILL NEED TO BE MONITORED

The federal government has been devising a new drug testing policy for a
number of months that will add to the present urine test now required of
federal employees and would permit testing of hair, saliva and sweat. The
proposals are subject to a 90-day comment period and they would require
another six months to a year to implement.

There are several reasons why the government wants to expand the kinds of
samples it can use in keeping drug use out of its agencies that employ 1.6
million workers. First, the methods to avoid or spoil urine samples are
many, and the federal government is not the only entity having problems
making sure the tests are rooting out possible drug abuse. New regulations
have been sought by private industry for almost 10 years. Hair samples,
particularly, can show evidence of drug and alcohol use for the past three
months and can point to a person's being a heavy or light drinker.

Worker organizations will inspect the new policies closely, and they
should. There are several factors that can effect the outcome of drug tests
made using the other specimens. For instance, hair color, according to the
proposed guidelines, "influences drug incorporation," with black hair
showing the most and blond the least. But those results are from animal
studies, and human information is limited.

Saliva can be influenced by what the guidelines call "environmental
contamination," and chewing gum can "lower drug concentrations in oral
fluid." Sweat has its own drawbacks. The guidelines state, "The
incorporation of drugs into sweat is poorly understood." The government
plans to use these other samplings in addition to urine to make it more
difficult for someone to thwart the tests.

The new guidelines have also raised concerns that the government and
employers could collect DNA from the samples. It is technically possible.
The government uses only authorized private laboratories. While hair, sweat
and saliva tests run about the same amount of money as urine tests, DNA
testing is an entirely different financial ball game. There is no enabling
legislation to create a federal DNA database, and private industry would
not want to incur the additional expense. Still it is wise for worker
rights groups to keep an eye on the procedures. While the guidelines are
270 pages, there's just one paragraph regarding protecting employee records
that refers to existing laws.