NEW FEDERAL DRUG SCREENING WOULD PERMIT RETESTING

A Bush administration proposal to add three new types of tests to the
drug-screening program for federal employees would allow workers to
seek retesting if any results come up positive, officials said yesterday.

The proposal would add saliva, sweat and hair tests to a regimen that
now relies on urine samples alone. Under the revised system, specimens
would be divided, with half of each undergoing immediate laboratory
testing, the other half held in reserve, said Robert L. Stephenson II,
director of the division of workplace programs in the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration. The "split specimen" would
provide a recourse for employees who want to challenge a positive
result without submitting a new sample. "It's a check-and-balance
system," Stephenson told reporters in a conference call.

The agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, plans
to publish proposed changes to the 18-year-old federal drug-testing
program in the Federal Register on Tuesday. A 90-day comment period
will follow.

The agency, which sets guidelines and oversees drug-testing programs
at federal agencies, first publicly discussed the plan in January. A
spokeswoman said the new tests would not begin until next year at the
earliest.

Officials say they want to give agencies the option of using the
alternative tests to catch drug use that urine tests may miss because
of masking agents or because an employee took drugs weeks earlier.

"It will be harder to adulterate many of the new testing
technologies," said Donna Bush, head of drug testing at the agency.

Federal employee union leaders have said they will study the proposal
closely. The policy dates to 1986, when President Ronald Reagan issued
an executive order declaring that the federal workplace must be drug
free.

"Any change to it, employees will be concerned about," said Colleen M.
Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, who cited
fears of false positives and inadequate due process.

Critics of the alternative tests say they are not as accurate as urine
tests, and that hair tests are more expensive than the $20 to $50 cost
of a urine test. Stephenson defended the accuracy of the alternative
tests but conceded that some will be more expensive.

"There is going to be a cost trade-off," he said. "There always
is."

If the government adopts alternative tests, private employers may
follow suit.

Federal drug-testing efforts focus on about 400,000 federal employees
who have security clearances, carry firearms, deal with public safety
or national security, or are presidential appointees. Other civilian
workers typically would be tested if they were involved in a workplace
accident or displayed signs of possible drug use on the job, officials
have said. The proposed changes would not expand the pool of workers
who could be tested, officials said.

In fiscal 2000, the most recent year for which figures are available,
drug tests were performed on 106,493 workers at 118 agencies at a cost
of $6.1 million. The number who test positive is consistently about
one-half of 1 percent, officials have said.