Drug Testing has become increasingly common over the last decade. Many
employers now test their employees for illegal drugs and alcohol as
a measure to improve safety within the workplace. On-site drug
testing kits are used in many healthcare settings to monitor
abstinence or to offer prescriptions and increasingly, parents or
partners are home drug testing their children or family members to
help deter drug use in the home.
This web page is dedicated to explaining the
various kinds of drug testing on offer and providing the advantages
and disadvantages of each.
Watch our Drug Testing Video
Common types of
Drug Testing:
On-site Urine Drug
Testing
On-site urine
drug
testing kits are a commonplace item in many hospitals, drug
treatment and rehabilitation centres, doctor's surgeries and
businesses. They enable you to test a urine sample for a range
of drugs in minutes, to laboratory screening standards.
Negative results can be read in as little as a minute, but positive
results require typically 5 minutes before you can be sure of the
drug test result. Different drugs are detectable in urine for
different lengths of time, but this window of detection is usually
measured in days. Visit our
drug
information page for more specific details.
The clear advantage
of testing with an on-site test is the speed, but you have to
confirm a positive result by laboratory means if you intend to take
action against the donor when you get a positive drug test result -
for example if a positive result will affect their employment, or
status on a rehabilitation programme.
Using a two stage
process which involves an initial on-site drug test, followed by
GC/MS laboratory confirmation (using chain of custody procedures)
will stand up in court but will also give you the advantage of
speed. Visit our
drug test
kits page for more information on the drug testing kits we
offer.
Laboratory Urine
Drug Testing
Drug testing via a
laboratory has the advantage that both the screening stage and the
confirmation stages of the test are carried out in one place - so
you get the fully confirmed test result shortly after the screening
result.
However, laboratory
drug screening is more expensive than on-site drug testing and you
have the time delay brought about by shipping the urine sample(s) to
the laboratory and the time it takes to run the tests and provide
the report. Many labs are automated, so this is typically
24-48 hours for screening results and 2-5 days for GC/MS
confirmation results. Visit our
laboratory drug testing page for more details on how we can
help.
Hair Drug Testing
Hair drug testing
has the advantage that it can detect drug use for a long period of
time - this is typically measured in months, although you can
potentially screen back for as long as the hair has been growing
from the scalp. Hair tends to grow at the rate of 1cm per
month, so a 3cm section of hair would represent a 3 month history.
You can test larger sections of hair for an overall idea of drug
history, or individual monthly sections of hair to get a detailed
chronological history of drug use.
The process is more
time consuming than urine testing as the hair needs to be processed
before it can be tested. We consequently have to charge a
processing fee, followed by a charge per drug, per section.
Hair testing normally takes around a week to complete, although we
ask customers to allow up to 10 working days if workloads are high.
Contact us for
details or visit our
Hair
Drug Test page for more information.
Oral / Saliva Drug
Tests
Drug testing based
upon oral fluid or saliva has been designed to be as non-invasive as
possible - which is a significant part of its appeal. However,
with this being a relatively new science we do not yet have
internationally standardised cut-off levels like we do for urine
testing. Having a standardised cut-off level for testing
ensures that everyone is tested at the same level and that the level
is correct.
Unfortunately, this
means that different suppliers of
Oral / Saliva Drug Testing Kits
are currently using the levels they have determined themselves and this is not
uniform across the industry.
Another difficulty
is that while drug use is detectable in urine for days and in hair
for months, oral testing only detects drugs for hours. You
need a high amount of drug in your body for it to come through into
your mouth in sufficient quantities to be detected.
Consequently, monitoring abstinence is more difficult. For
example, someone using heroin yesterday is likely to test negative
today on an oral test, but positive on a urine test.
However, as long as
our customers understand these limitations we are happy to supply
what we consider to be the best
Saliva Drug Tests / Oral Fluid Drug Testing kits in the
industry.
Surface Drug
Detection Wipes
Drug testing
doesn't always have to involve testing an individual - you can
always test their environment. A good example of this is our
Cocaine Surface Drug Detection Wipes.
These user friendly
postcard sized swabs are very useful in the workplace or public
areas to detect the use or handling of cocaine. One of our
customers for these kits is
The Daily Mail who recently mentioned our surface wipes in one
of their cocaine surface drug testing
articles.
Results from these simple cocaine ID wipes are immediate. Just wipe
over any surface which could potentially be contaminated with
cocaine and look to see if the wipe turns blue. They can detect
cocaine from even trace amounts of drug residue left on any surfaces
that have been in direct contact with cocaine or hands which are
contaminated.
You can detect both Cocaine Hcl (powder) and Cocaine Base (crack or
freebase) - and many companies use them to look for traces of
cocaine in company bathrooms, lockers, desks, vehicles, door
handles, on light switches or any other surfaces that are flat,
smooth and frequently handled.
Contact us for
further information - at a fraction over £1 plus VAT per test they
are a highly economical way to protect your business from issues
relating to occupier's liability under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Please note: These wipes are a
screening test for information purposes only. Any preliminary
positive results must be confirmed by an alternative methodology
before any action is taken.
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So why
choose Drug-Aware for your Drug Testing requirements?
At
Drug-Aware, we pride ourselves on providing a comprehensive
solution when it comes to drug testing - we even offer
training in drug testing and drug awareness.
Take a look
at all of the additional extras we add as standard!
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