Saturday, January 7, 2012

Blood and Saliva Tests – Ideal for Post-Accident Drug Testing

Post-accident drug testing, as the name suggests, is conducted after an accident or after any incident on the job that leads to suspicion. It is one of the effective measures of a drug-free workplace program. It is conducted to know if the accident that had occurred is because of the influence of illicit drug or alcohol. Post-accident drug testing is not intended to punish the drug abusing employee or make him or her lose his job. It is mainly meant for protecting the company from liability in event that the individual is under drug or alcohol influence at the time of accident. However, blood and saliva drug test method which detect present drug abuse are only used for post-accident drug testing.

In a blood test, blood sample is drawn from the concerned employee and checked for the presence of illicit drugs or alcohol. However, it is an invasive procedure. It also requires laboratory analysis to confirm the results, which also takes time. An alternative method of saliva drug testing can also be conducted for post-accident testing. It is very much non-invasive. A mouth swab is kept into the employee's mouth and rubbed along his cheeks and teeth in order to collect the saliva sample. The sample is tested for the presence of drugs or alcohol. Recent drug abuse is clearly evident from saliva drug test. Another advantage of this method is that it provides quick results within a few minutes. So, you need not wait for the results as in case of blood tests. Conclusions regarding the accident or injuries can be taken as early as possible with the help of saliva drug tests. However, both blood and saliva tests can be used for post-accident drug testing.


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