The Governor stated that she couldn’t back up claims on her statement that half of the applicants who wanted to work at the Energy Department Savannah River Site failed drug tests and the other half were unable to pass a reading and writing test. It seems that this is far from the truth.

Haley was at the Savannah River Site while campaigning for governor.

“We were on the site. There were multiple people in there. And that comment that they made had a huge impact on me,” Haley said. “It is the reason you’re hearing me look into whether we can do drug testing. It’s the reason you hear me focus so much on job training,” Haley said. “Somebody can’t say that and it not stick you in the gut.”

And “now they’re all backing off saying it. And they know they said it.,” Haley said.

The spokesmen for Savannah River Site has stated that less than 1 percent of the employees seeking security badges to work at the site fail drug tests. Although this figure does not represent the workers seeking security clearances to enter and work on site due to outside vendors. The details for other skills have not been made available.

Quest Diagnostics, a national drug testing company produced an annual report of pre-employment and workplace drug testing. They found that in 2010, less than 2 percent tested positive for pre-employment. Also information from 4.5 million urine test showed 3.5 percent of employees tested positive for drugs after being hired. Since 2006 this rate has been below 4 percent.

Regardless of the current situation and statics Haley stated that she still believes in the need for drug tests tied to unemployment benefits and wants to renovate job skill programs. She blames the state Commerce Department for exaggerating the economic development numbers.

Nicotine testing is a growing trend for employers especially in the health care field. In 2007 the Cleveland Clinic stopped hiring tobacco-using employees as well as other medical facilities in the metro Phoenix area. Being in the health care field, Humana representatives feel that it their duty to lead by example. The unhealthy conditions smoking creates in the human body are life threatening. Humana aims to promote health and wellness starting from within their own company.

Other employers have begun financial incentives for being nicotine free such as lowering health care costs. Companies also have adapted “wellness plans” that measures if an employee’s body-mass index surpasses the healthy amount, or if cholesterol levels are alarming high- can indicate future health problems.

Recently in Arizona employees have complained about a new health plan that requires an employee to turn in a saliva sample to test for nicotine. The employees resisted stating it was an invasion of privacy. The employees who did agreed to take the nicotine test and passed have lowered their insurance premiums by $480 less than what smokers and employees who declined to take the test must pay.

There is nothing under Arizona state law that prohibits Humana from not hiring smokers, legal experts say.  What do you think about it?

It is due to these issues that most employers, including the majority of all Fortune 500 companies require an applicant and workers to participate in drug testing at work. The purpose for this type of urine screening is due to safety issues and to lessen these consequences from substance abuse.

Studies show that 65% of all accidents at the workplace, are drug related. A worker who abuses drugs average around 16% more likely to take advantage of healthcare benefits, and is also 6% more prone to file worker’s compensation.

Safety professionals find drug testing to be useful and a practical in cost. The most common type of testing is pre-employment. This is a great way to eliminate bad applicants, and people with drug problems. A pre-employment drug test requires minimal effort to set up. Another type of testing is post employment. This includes random drug tests, individualized suspicion testing, and post accidents.

An employer should have a program in place before starting their company. The tests can be managed by referring an applicant to a collection site. It is here that urine is collected and sent to a lab for analysis. Within 24 hours a negative result is usually available. A second method used is an instant drug test kit. These are similar to a take home pregnancy test. The employer must manipulate a urine sample.

The type of drugs that are tested is what is considered a standard five-panel test of “street drugs”. This includes marijuana (THC), cocaine, PCP, opiates (codeine and morphine) and amphetamines (includes methamphetamine). If an employer chooses there is also a 10-panel drug test that is able to identify prescription drugs.

Typically drugs stay in the body for 2 to 4 days. If an applicant or worker is a chronic user drugs have been known to stay in their body for 14 days, or sometimes longer. Most employers require a test to be done within a short specific amount of time. This prevents delaying an amount of time, for the drug(s) to leave the body.

The amount of money and time connected with a substance abuse employee is highly excessive than the amount of money and time involved in drug screening. Most employers find that eliminating the problem first is well worth it.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accused the airline of assigning 13 employees to safety-sensitive positions before they received the test results of their drug and alcohol tests. United Airlines was given 30 days to act at the FAA’s cost proposal. The offense occurred all through the airline and involved workers on the flight crew, service and maintenance teams, said FAA spokesman Paul Turk.

The FAA has also cited United Airlines for failure to use a scientific credible process to make sure that each employer of the airline’s flight crew has an equal chance of being chosen for an alcohol or random drug test. This is not the first time United Airlines have been penalized regarding their drug testing methods. In the past the FAA had warned United Airlines twice.

United Airlines have replied by issuing a statement stating, “We are reviewing the letter and will cooperate fully with the FAA to resolve their concerns.”

This current penalty was significant but not the highest action issued by the FAA. In 2009, US Airways was fined by the agency for $5.4 million for not performing mandatory inspections and maintenance on several aircrafts.United Airlines ranks as the fourth-largest airline in the United States. Last year they had accompanied 54 million passengers onto their airplanes.

United Airlines parent company UAL Corp. recently merged with Continental Airlines Inc. in October 2010. Continental served about 43 million passengers last yearn ranking sixth in the country, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Currently the two airlines are now merged with United Continental Holdings Inc. located in Chicago. They continue to function as separate airlines. United Continental is hoping to receive a single operating certificate from the FAA by the end of this year to complete the merger.

The nicotine drug testing will be able to determine an active tobacco user, a user who recently quit or a non-tobacco users. The nicotine test can also detect the amount of chemicals in a non-tobacco user who have been exposed to to 2nd hand smoke.

If a person is using nicotine replacement products in place of  tobacco the health and insurance companies may measure the amount of anabasine in your body. Anabasine is a chemical found in tobacco, but is not in any commercial nicotine replacement products.  Therefore, if a test is positive for anabasine, then you know that person is still using tobacco products.

High levels of nicotine or cotinine signify an active tobacco user. A balanced level of cotinine means this person has quit tobacco use for two or three weeks. If small amounts are found, this indicates a non-tobacco user who has been exposed to second hand smoke, or a person who has quit tobacco use for several weeks.

There are many other uses for nicotine drug tests. Sometimes an employer will require the test, if they prohibit smoking. Smoking can raise the risk of medical complications, so before some surgical procedures or drug therapies, a nicotine test can be used.

The drug test is also used for medical purposes when a nicotine overdose may be present. Some symptoms of a mild overdose include, dizziness, nausea, uncontrollable drooling, and weakness. For a more serious overdose, a person could experience, seizures, coma’s, difficulty breathing, and a drop in heart rate and blood pressure.

This may be a little boring, but the term “drug testing” pops up automatically on a Google search as soon as you start to type in the word “drug”. The term generates 6.7 million hits—clearly this is something the Internet audience is interested in learning about.

“Drug testing in the workplace” is another popular term, especially now that more employers are conducting drug tests as an requirement for employment. Type in this search term and you’ll get more than a million answers to your question.

“Is drug testing legal” seems to be a topic of great concern to Internet users. You’ll have your pick of nearly 8 million responses to that online question. “Types of drug tests” is also a popular search that results in more than 7 million hits from which to choose.

Search terms like “how to beat a drug test” and “passing a drug test” are quite popular and result in millions of hits. “Drug test myths” ranked a little lower, with just over 250,000 search result hits.

“Marijuana drug test” searches garner 1.5 million searches, and “cocaine drug test” isn’t far behind. The term “heroin drug test” is less popular, with only 153,000 hits. This is interesting because the gap in search results mirrors drug use stats—heroin is a less-used drug than cocaine or marijuana. Perhaps this is an indication that search terms and results are a reflection of actual societal trends.

Due to reports from members of the construction industry that employee drug use was compromising safety and productivity, lawmakers worked quickly to require employee drug testing. Reception to the law has been highly positive so far, with on the job accidents being reduced and contractors reporting a rise in productivity. Other states around the country have noticed West Virginia’s success with workplace drug testing, and similar proposals are being considered.

http://www.timeswv.com/business/local_story_209005307.html