False Positive Drug Testing
Sabrina Shapolsky
C11966342
False Positive Drug Tests
When an employee tests positive for a drug they did not take, it is referred to as a false-positive. The scientific method for testing employee’s drug consumption is not completely fool-proof, and it is actually quite faulty. Often times, drug tests detect certain foods and medicines as drugs.
The most commonly used test for drugs is a urine test. These tests were simple and cheaper than others however, they are extremely sensitive. For example, if an employee ate a poppy seed bagel for breakfast, they could test positives for opiates, since opiates are made from poppies. There is an extensive list of legal and prescribed drugs that create false positives in drugs tests, as well as certain foods that create positive drug results in urine tests. In order to make these test results more specific and less sensitive, the costs of these tests will go up. Most companies do not want to pay laboratories, like Quest Diagnostics, for additional and more detail-oriented screenings. Thus, many employees get fired for false positive drug tests. …show more content…
An employee has the right to refrain from disclosing any medications they are taking to their employer.
By law, employers cannot ask their employee if they take any prescription medication. Since employees have the right not to disclose if they’re taking prescribed medication, many employers may find the behaviors of these employees to fluctuate or be different than other employees. Thus, they could have a larger chance of being selected to take a drug test. If the drug test results come back positive, there is no way to know if the drugs were from a prescribed medication or not. However, the employee does have the right to explain that they take medication that skew test
results.
There are several reasons an employee’s job can be terminated from a false positive drug test result. First, the employer may not be educated on the frequency of false positives. If they are, and they still fire their employee, they probably do not have the financial means to do a more specific drug test. Thirdly, the employers trust in their employee would have to be very strong in order to trust word of mouth over the test results. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common for employees to be out of a job because of false positive drug test results.
Works Cited
Chan, Amanda L. “False Positive? The Reality Of Workplace Drugs In America.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Dec. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/workplace-drugs-testing_n_4524048.html.
Keary, Christopher J., et al. “Toxicologic Testing for Opiates: Understanding False-Positive and
False-Negative Test Results.” The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc., 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3505132/.
“Drug Tests: Don't Fall Victim to a ‘False-Positive.’” Henry Ford Allegiance Health,
www.allegiancehealth.org/wellness/article/13837.
C11966342
False Positive Drug Tests
When an employee tests positive for a drug they did not take, it is referred to as a false-positive. The scientific method for testing employee’s drug consumption is not completely fool-proof, and it is actually quite faulty. Often times, drug tests detect certain foods and medicines as drugs.
The most commonly used test for drugs is a urine test. These tests were simple and cheaper than others however, they are extremely sensitive. For example, if an employee ate a poppy seed bagel for breakfast, they could test positives for opiates, since opiates are made from poppies. There is an extensive list of legal and prescribed drugs that create false positives in drugs tests, as well as certain foods that create positive drug results in urine tests. In order to make these test results more specific and less sensitive, the costs of these tests will go up. Most companies do not want to pay laboratories, like Quest Diagnostics, for additional and more detail-oriented screenings. Thus, many employees get fired for false positive drug tests. …show more content…
An employee has the right to refrain from disclosing any medications they are taking to their employer.
By law, employers cannot ask their employee if they take any prescription medication. Since employees have the right not to disclose if they’re taking prescribed medication, many employers may find the behaviors of these employees to fluctuate or be different than other employees. Thus, they could have a larger chance of being selected to take a drug test. If the drug test results come back positive, there is no way to know if the drugs were from a prescribed medication or not. However, the employee does have the right to explain that they take medication that skew test
results.
There are several reasons an employee’s job can be terminated from a false positive drug test result. First, the employer may not be educated on the frequency of false positives. If they are, and they still fire their employee, they probably do not have the financial means to do a more specific drug test. Thirdly, the employers trust in their employee would have to be very strong in order to trust word of mouth over the test results. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly common for employees to be out of a job because of false positive drug test results.
Works Cited
Chan, Amanda L. “False Positive? The Reality Of Workplace Drugs In America.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 31 Dec. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/31/workplace-drugs-testing_n_4524048.html.
Keary, Christopher J., et al. “Toxicologic Testing for Opiates: Understanding False-Positive and
False-Negative Test Results.” The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc., 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3505132/.
“Drug Tests: Don't Fall Victim to a ‘False-Positive.’” Henry Ford Allegiance Health,
www.allegiancehealth.org/wellness/article/13837.