Performing the testing of wastewater, is that something you can carry out on all sites? Is it an easy test to complete?

Wastewater testing can be performed effectively at any site. All that is required is to get access to the effluent outflow or the wastewater holding tanks for sampling. If required, Safework Health can send our staff to your sites and assess what needs to be done for testing and advise on the optimum testing regime tailored to your needs. Wastewater testing requires as a minimum that the number of staff at the site at the time of testing be made available. The effluent flow rate would be helpful but is not critical, as it can be approximated from the staff numbers assuming the average number of toilet visits and the average Australian toilet flush volume. Each sampling episode is easily done by taking ~300mL of wastewater from the effluent stream. Reports will be available within 7 working days of receipt of the sample.

Do we need to notify the employees that we are going to conduct wastewater testing?

There is no requirement – either legally or by custom, in Australia or internationally – to inform a site that wastewater testing is being or is planned to be performed. Wastewater testing is a whole-site testing procedure and does not impact the individual workers. Results reveal the magnitude of drug use at a site collectively and cannot identify the individual workers involved, so no case can be made for generally informing a site that testing will take place.

Do you see a time when we will have standards for hair testing?

It is generally believed the European SoHT (Society of Hair Testing) recommendations will be adopted as the international standard for hair testing by the EU over the next 2 to 3 years – specifically the 2022 Consensus on Hair Testing. The current delay is due to problems reconciling French guidelines with German practice. Once the EU has given its imprimatur, the US and Australia will follow suit to comply with international best practice guidelines.

Can you share that evidence base for >1 per year drug and alcohol testing programs reducing accidents by X%?

In progress. The review of the literature will be made available on 12 December 2023.

Do the laboratory test results reflect how long ago the worker is likely to have taken THC? Namely, can the result be converted into a rough timeline of when the THC was used?

No exact figure can be given. Urinary THC (provided the donor’s physiological details are supplied) may potentially supply the most accurate (albeit rough) estimate.

The oral fluid detection window for THC is roughly 8-12 hrs for standard doses of medicinal cannabis, ~ 12-18 hours for a NIDA-standard low dose 5mg THC cigarette, 18-24+hrs for a NIDA moderate dose 10mg THC cigarette. By use of the detection window a crude estimate of the maximum time since use can be made.

Urine detection windows are more complex. THC is a lipid-soluble molecule which partitions into the body fat. The more frequent the use of cannabis, and/or the more adipose tissue a donor has, the longer the detection window for THC – ranging from 3 to 5 days for a standard NIDA cigarette in a donor with normal BMI to 7 days for an obese donor with a BMI > 28.

By factoring in the height/weight and age of the donor and the stated frequency of use, a rough estimate of the time since use (i.e., more than ‘x’ hours but less than ‘y’ hours before collection) can be made for a range of THC doses, as well as determining whether a particular urinary THC level is consistent with the donor’s stated dosage and declared time since use. It should be noted these estimates are rough and not exact and that, while oral fluid THC correlates well with THC-associated impairment (if it’s not detected, the donor’s not affected), urinary THC levels do not correlate with impairment.

In this webinar, we will explore:

• Legislative Requirements and Fiduciary Duty-of-Care: We’ll dive into the legal obligations and fiduciary responsibilities related to workplace drug testing.
• Assessing Your Workplace Needs: Learn how to assess your workplace to determine the extent of substance abuse issues and identify specific needs.
• Developing a Written Policy: We’ll provide guidelines and a template to help you create a robust and effective drug-free workplace policy.
• Implementing Drug Testing: Discover how to choose the right test mix and testing strategy to suit your business’s requirements, including considerations for frequency and types of testing.
• Education & Training: Explore the importance of providing education and training for employees and additional training for supervisors and other relevant staff.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Gain insights into setting up and assessing your EAP to support employees dealing with substance abuse issues.

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What do you intend to accomplish when you implement a workplace drug policy? Do you want to catch those who come to work impaired by drugs? Do you want to be able to identify who are drug users in general among your employees? Are you planning to conduct pre-hire testing to make sure you don’t get to hire a drug user? These are the questions you need to consider and think about.

While pre-hire testing is easy and implementing it can be relatively inexpensive, regular drug tests for current employees can be costly, so make sure you have the budget for a consistent implementation of your workplace drug policy before actually implementing it.

When you are done with drug safety policy development, make sure you communicate it clearly to everyone within the organisation.

For a small business owner, conveying the drug-free workplace message quickly and clearly can be easily done. All they need to do is implement an education and awareness program which will explain not only the pertinent details of the entire workplace drug policy, but also information on the adverse effects of drug abuse in the workplace.

Managers and supervisors can undergo drug training programs that will help them communicate the drug policy to everyone as clearly as possible.

Talking to your lawyers and getting them to review every single word of your workplace drug policy is perhaps one of the most important steps you have to take before its implementation.

Remember, all your employees have rights, and if they feel that your workplace drug policy has violated those rights in any way, you might find yourself at the receiving end of a lawsuit.

That’s why you need to make sure that the workplace drug policy is airtight and that your workers have been thoroughly educated about it. Using reasonable methods, following established testing procedures, and doing the tests right will also help you avoid litigation, which will always be costly no matter what the outcome.

It should be made clear what the drug and alcohol policy is for. Generally, it’s all about ensuring the health and safety of everyone in the workplace, but you might also want to state how the policy can also help the company achieve its productivity and overall business goals.

Ideally, a drug and alcohol policy should cover all workers — from rank and file employees to top-tier management. Drug and alcohol abuse, after all, doesn’t make such distinctions.

Your drug and alcohol policy should explicitly state that using drugs or drinking alcohol while on duty will never be tolerated. Many workplace accidents are caused by a worker who is impaired, which means they used drugs or alcohol before going to work or during the workday.

If your drug and alcohol policy includes a program for on-site drug testing, it has to be up front about how it’s going to be conducted, or under what circumstances are they going to be done. For instance, people will need to know if the program includes random drug testing, or what drug testing method is going to be used.

Should there be employees who breach the drug and alcohol policy, it should be stated clearly what disciplinary actions will be taken against them. The kind of substance used, the severity of the offense, the degree of impairment, if proven, are all factors that need to be considered when coming up with disciplinary actions.

Safework Health has developed and reviewed thousands of drug and alcohol policies for businesses in a range of industries and sectors across Australia.

Contact us today to learn more.