Urine Testing

Urine testing is the industry standard, with proven collection and laboratory procedures that make results highly accurate and legally defensive. Urine testing is the ideal method for many different types of tests, including:

 

• Pre-employment
• Random
• Post-accident
• Reasonable suspicion/cause
• Return-to-duty
• Follow-up.

 

 

Oral Fluids (Saliva) Testing

Oral fluids testing is more a determination of recent use, because it has the ability to detect use within 1 hour (but not beyond 24 hours). Although this technology is not recognized by Alaska State Statute, it may be beneficial for tests such as:

 

• Post-accident
• Reasonable suspicion/cause situations
• Random (to a lesser extent)

 

Hair Testing

Hair testing is used mainly for pre-employment situations to detect drug use over a longer period of time (up to 90 days) than the Urine and Oral fluids testing detection timeframes.  Hair tests in Alaska, are often used for highly safety-critical positions where there is zero tolerance of drug usage.

 

Breath Alcohol Testing

This test is used to measure a worker’s blood alcohol concentration on-site. This test is easy to administer, but equipment must be FDA approved, tester must be certified and a standard procedure must be followed.