INDUSTRY FOCUS
UK's growing drug culture requires more rigorous workplace drugs testing
One of the world’s leading forensic toxicology companies says the UK’s growing drugs culture is responsible for a rapid increase in the adoption of workplace drug and alcohol testing by businesses.
Eurofins Scientific, the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing, says in order to keep staff safe and allay fears of accidents, employers are proactively implementing drug and alcohol testing policies – usually preceded by an ‘amnesty’ period, allowing staff with dependencies time to address their problem ahead of being screened for the presence of drugs or alcohol.
Last month, Home Office minister Ben Wallace described the UK as “Europe’s biggest consumer of cocaine”, a trend which is fuelling growing levels of violence and anti-social behaviour, which according to Eurofins, has major implications for UK plc.
Gary McCutcheon, Eurofins commercial manager for workplace drug testing, said: “The UK has developed a drug abuse problem but people assume it is all recreational. However, drug taking does not start at 5pm on Friday. The workplace is a major part of a society where drugs are a daily reality.”
The problem is such that the market for forensic toxicology will rise from £167 million today to £231 million by 2019 – more than a 40 per cent increase – as businesses look to protect their staff and brand reputations.
Cocaine and cannabis are the most common drugs detected in the workplace but there is a growing trend towards abuse of prescription medication, NPS (novel-psychoactive substances) or so-called ‘legal highs’ and steroids which, according to experts, can trigger aggression.
He said that drug testing was mandatory in many industries, including the transport sector, but the harmful implications of letting drug and alcohol abuse go unchallenged were such that a wider selection of businesses were opting for screening.
Workplace drug and alcohol testing is now common across a wide range of sectors including the construction industry where, due to the high-risk operational environment, extreme care has to be taken in all areas of work. Workplace drug and alcohol testing is also widely used in many other sectors including maritime, aviation, manufacturing, food-processing and logistics.
However, Mr McCutcheon said the harmful implications of letting drug and alcohol abuse go unchallenged were such that wider selection of businesses were now opting to implement testing policies or enhance existing measures.
He said: “Gone are the days when employers could turn a blind eye to drug and alcohol abuse. The drivers for this are more rigorous regulation including the Corporate Manslaughter Act, and a greater emphasis on health and safety in the workplace.”
As testing regimes – which are based upon urine, saliva and even hair samples which can detect what has been taken and when over a three-month period – are so accurate, Mr McCutcheon predicted firms will have to introduce amnesties to prevent potential stigmatisation.
“It will be normal for businesses to announce amnesties at least two months ahead of drug testing being introduced,” said Mr McCutcheon.
“This will allow people to discreetly raise the issue with their employers, particularly if they have addictions to prescription or recreational drugs. It is a better and more pre-emptive way of dealing with the issue than being caught and stigmatised by the accuracy of the test.”
He added that the UK was lagging behind the USA, where drug testing policies and regimes are commonplace and have been a fact of working life for many years.
Eurofins, which launched its new workplace drug testing service at the Safety and Health Expo at ExCeL, earlier in June, acquired LGC Forensics and Security Division, the UK’s largest forensic toxicology service in October 2017.
This provided Eurofins with the opportunity to reshape the European forensics market with a unique scientific consulting and expert witness services, beyond the laboratory.
With 400 of its own independent laboratories worldwide, Eurofins drugs testing provides a scalable, end-to-end outsourced service for the screening of employees for drugs and alcohol - from secure collection and transportation to discreet services, including the drafting of comprehensive company drug and alcohol policies.
