Trying to Outwit Drug Screening.

• Position: Brief Article

It has been said that if there is a demand for a product, chances are someone, somewhere is selling it. Proof positive is what is happening with drug screening and those who want to beat the system. Many companies have instituted drug-testing policies to ensure that their workforce is drug-free. This has created the demand for products designed to help those who would normally fail to pass the tests.

"It's amazing what one can buy to try and beat the drug tests," says David Feinstein, a certified medical review officer with Concentra, Connecticut's largest occupational health care provider, as well as the state's leading center for drug screening. "Anyone can go online and purchase drug-free urine, heaters, and even prosthetics to try and beat the tests. This has forced us in the drug-screening business to become very creative."

One website, for example, sells concentrated urine that is guaranteed to pass any drug test. The same site offers a prosthetic device that allows a man to give a fake urine sample while appearing to be providing a sample from his own bladder.

"When a company sends an employee or prospective employee to us for a drug screening, we send them into a specially equipped bathroom ... and ask them to provide a urine sample," Feinstein notes. "Our bathrooms are not typical because we've prepared them especially to help prevent adulteration."

One precaution Concentra takes is that, when the test subject enters the testing area, a medical attendant flicks a switch on the outside of the room to shut off the water supply to the toilet and sink. This prevents the person from trying to dilute the sample with tap water. The company also uses a blue coloring tablet in the toilet tank so that, if a person tries to mix toilet water with the sample, the result is a greenish liquid. "There a misconception that using water to dilute a urine sample will fool the drug test," Feinstein explains. "The reason we shut the water is so that the candidate is discouraged from trying to tamper with the tests. We've even seen some candidates go so far as to drink a gallon of water before coming in for a test in hopes of diluting their sample.... We tell them to go home and reschedule the test because we can tell when the sample is diluted."

Another factor to consider when administering tests is the temperature of the sample. Since the urine is supposed to be coming from inside the body, it should be body temperature. Mail-order specimens will not...