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Unfortunately the EWDTS guidelines have not tackled alcohol in urine, breath or oral fluid, just hair, so they may not be useful in this instance.  Also the documents are the proposed new versions and still under discussion.  Regrettably the link to the current and valid versions has been removed. 

 

Be careful about setting the cut-off level at zero as the analytical range for some do not go to zero, e.g. Lion has a range of 0.02 to 2.0mg/L BrAC.  Whilst this may seem like splitting hairs, a practical approach is adopted by many companies and countries e.g. New Zealand, where under 20yrs old have a zero limit, however for practical reasons convictions only occur at 0.010% BAC or above.  A similar approach has been adopted in Sweden since 1990.  Whilst these relate to drink-drive legislation, the approach is sound.

 

The aim of testing should always be compliance, regardless of whether it is post lunch drinking, or morning after; over the limit is over.  The focus then is on education to prevent any rule-breaking, and education of managers to make sure the policy is applied in an even, unbiased manner.

 

And as mentioned already, don’t forget drugs.

 

Regards

Helen

 

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carr Barnes
Sent: 09 October 2015 08:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Alcohol Testing

 

Although Lyndsey I've just thought about the "hangover" effect next day..so some could test positive from night before. I guess this illustrates how important it is to be clear about the aims of testing; safety critical = zero tolerance  (hangover and forklifts/machinery etc not compatible). If just general conduct policy then how will they manage cases that are over (legal) limit due to hangover but are performing job role without concern and behaving appropriately?  If it's to prevent drinking on breaks (pub at lunchtime) then do they plan to test everyone coming back? Legal limit in that situation suggests they tolerate (encourage?) some alcohol. What about drug testing? One could argue solely focusing on alcohol could bring legal claims. Maybe a conversation about what they are trying to achieve and how best to go about it is warranted as this may not have been fully thought through by whoever is driving this.

Regards

Carr

On 8 Oct 2015 21:31, "Carr Barnes" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

What message are they sending if they use the legal limits? Occupational driving already carries higher risk than social driving and they plan to say "we're ok with you having a drink and then driving/working for us and we're happy for customers/public to potentially see that too"? That would be fun to defend in court if something happened. Always been zero tolerance when I've done them.

Regards

Carr

On 8 Oct 2015 19:25, "Lyndsey Marchant" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hello everyone, 

I have been asked to do random alcohol tests onsite, I have a dragger and that’s about it. 

 

Can anyone provide me with a consent form, or policy / procedure to go with this instead of me reinventing the wheel? 

The company want to adopt the legal drink drive limit as their cut off level… any thoughts? 

 

 

 

 

Warm Regards

 

Lyndsey 

 

Lyndsey Marchant Dip HERN(A), BA SCPHN(OH)

Director & Nurse Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health                                                                                                             

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PHOENIX OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH Ltd

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 <http://www.phoenixoh.com> www.phoenixoh.com                                                                      

 

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