News Notes: DOT Revises Drug And Alcohol Testing Rules

The U.S. Department of Transportation has implemented several changes in drug and alcohol testing regulations that impact transportation employees in safety-sensitive positions, such as bus drivers, railroad workers, airline mechanics and flight crews. The most important changes involve validity testing, which is designed to detect samples that have been tampered with or substituted. To ensure fairness to employees, when a laboratory suspects that a sample has been adulterated, an employer-paid physician must review the test results to determine whether there is a legitimate medical reason that accounts for the results. An employee can also have a sample retested by a different lab. These provisions take effect on Feb. 19, 2001. Other changes, including enhanced training requirements for drug and alcohol testing personnel, go into effect Aug. 1, 2001.